Evening star., 1946-08-14
Brituin's Decision

cision of the British government to
use force in breaking up illegal i'm
migration into Palestine has come
as cruel blow to the tortured Jew
ish refugees who serve as pawns in
this tragic business. In all the cir
cumstances, however, it is difficult
to see what other decision could
have been taken.
The Jews who have been removed
from refugee ships in the harbor
at Haifa and transferred to deten-
tion camps on the island of Cyprus
had suffered great hardships in
their underground journey from
Eastern and Southern Europe to
the portals of the homeland which
they believed awaited them in Pal
estine. Many OF these people mar
roWiy escaped the Hitlerian purges
and the pogroms which followed the
end Of the war. To be turned back
iust as the end of terror and suffer
ms seemed to be in sight must have
been, for the individuals involved, =
tragedy % truly neartbreaking pro-
oortioiS.
Yet nothing is accomplished by
condcmring the British for their
decision. For them it was rot g.
simple question % admitting the
Jews or Turning them back. The
British say, 8nd the evidence sup
ports them, that the mass move
ment of illegal immigrants into Pal
cstine is not movement arising
spontaneously among the European
Jews, but rather the product of "a
widely ramif1ed and highly organ
lied movement supported by very
large financial contributions from
Zionist sources" And this. as the
British see it, is calculated at
tempt to force the hand of the
Attlee government with respect to
future policy in Palestine.
For the British. however, the
problem is larger than that of con-
doning or checking an illegal traffic.
AS the mandatory power for Pales-
tine, Britain has responsibility to
the Arabs as we'll as the Jews, and
there is good reason to believe that
illegal Jewish immigration, If not
checked by the British, would lead
to bloody clashes with the Arab
population, whose claims in Pales-
tine are Just as passionately as
serted as those of the Jews.
Behind all of this, and not men,
toned in any official dispatch, is the
broader question of Palestine's re-
lation to the whole of the Middle
East. Palestine is situated near the
center of the main line of communi-
cations between the western world
and Asia. For Britain, and only ir
lesser degree for other western
powers, it is essential that there be
free access to the route through the
Mediterranean and the Suez Canal.
It is also important to the western
nations that they not be denied ac-
cess to the oil reserves of the Middle
East.
These considerations, while not
mentioned in the official statement,
must surely have been in the minds
of British officials. If the Arabs,
embittered and disillusioned by
British capitulation to Zionist de-
mands, should turn to Soviet Russia
for support, and if this should lead
to powerful Russian penetration of
the Middle East, there would be a
shift in the balance of world power
which would have fateful conse-
quences for Britain, for us, and, not
least of all, for the Jews. 1t may
be easy to overstate the seriousness
of this prospect, but it certainly is
one additional factor which calls
Tor a reasonable and negotiated
not violent-settlement of the Pal
estine question.