30 MAY 1952, Page 22

Zionists and Arabs

S1R.—Mr. Harold Nicolson's lyrical approval of the way in which the Zionists have established themselves " by blood and iron" m Palestine is typical of the reasoning which bewilders 40,000.000 Arabs and 300,000,000 Moslems. When the Arabs of Tunis struggle to win their own freedom in their own land, the West refuses even to consider the question in its international Parliament. But when the " muscular " Israelis struggle " to win their freedom " in a land owned for more than a millennium by Arabs. and do so by expelling those Arabs "by blood and iron," the result is an elegant essay from Mr. Nicolson's pen. Granted that it was Christendom which persecuted the Jews. would it not have been more logical to have insisted on Israel's construction in Christian territory, at Christian expense ? And surely Mr. Nicolson ignores the true basis of the Israeli State—American bonds and American gold.—Yours, &c.,