Palestine Outrages
New and alarming outrages committed by Jewish bands in Palestine follow hard on the announcement that President Truman is sending a Cabinet committee to London to confer with British officials here on the recent Anglo-American report on Palestine, and that this step has been warmly welcomed in Whitehall. It would appear that the outrages, centring mainly at Haifa, were designed to distract attention from the attempted illegal landings of Jewish immigrants at various points on the coast. The damage achieved has been great—it would seem to be the aim of the Jewish Haganah to make the Land of Promise a desolation—and as usual British lives have been lost. Such terrorism has the incidental effect of converting every British soldier in Palestine, not indeed to anti-semitism but-- what is quite different—to anti-Zionism. The decision to be taken regarding future British policy in Palestine will be critical, and the necessity of taking it lays a grave responsibility on the Cabinet. The coming talks with the American Cabinet committee must be carried through first, but in the end the British Cabinet must decide, for the idea of shifting the whole responsibility on to U.N.O. becomes less and less practicable. What above all things is called for is a declara- tion that the establishment of a National Home for the Jews in Palestine has, with the presence of over half a million Jews in the country, been definitely achieved and the requirements of the Balfour Declaration are therefore satisfied. Once that is understood, and the Arabs assured that there is and will be no question of turning Palestine into a National Home for the Jews, such questions as a further limited immigration, or even the almost desperate alternative of partition, can be considered in a new light. Meanwhile it is not edifying to see Great Powers, this country among them, endeavouring to inject into Palestine masses of Jews whom they are not prepared to accept themselves. How far the general situation will be affected by the sudden appearance of the Grand Mufti in Egypt remains to be seen. He is a bitter enemy of this country, and Egypt, as an ally, of this country, cannot with decency give permanent harbourage to this country's enemies. He will be a danger so long as he remains anywhere in the Middle East.
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