Evening star., 1948-11-07
Fight Is Hopeless, Make Peace,
4 Arab Nations Reported Told
By u. n. Mission Chief of Stoff
u. S. Marine General
Suid to Have Called
Truce Decd Duck
by the Assoeiofed Press

VAOAio oOuASC oahu VOIl4SIlt 1OOI
Arab governments have been
advised their military position in
Palestine Is hopeless" and that
they had better make peace.
This authoritative informant, who
insisted on anonymity, said Brig.
Gen. William E.. Riley, a United
States Marine Corps general and
chief of staff Of the United Nations
Truce Mission in Palestine, minced
no words" in a three-hour confer
ence with Syrian, Egyptian, Leba-
nese and Iraq representatives.
The meeting, which took place on
the initiative of DR.. Ralph Bunche,
acting U. N. mediator, was attended
by DR.. Bunche and his deputy,
Henri Vigier, the informant said.
Arabs Make No Commitments.
The source said, Riley made it
clear that in the opinion of the
people who have to try to work it
the truce now is a dead duck"
The U. N. informant, who was in
side the conference room, said the
Arab representatives-Adel Arslan
of Syria, Fuad Amour of Lebanon,
Mahmoud Fawzi of Egypt, and an
agent OF Iraq-asked many questions
of Gen. Riley and examined the
maps he produced.
But they committed their gov
ernments in no way.
The source said Gen. Riley made
no specific political proposal, though
the tenor of his talk conveyed the
idea that the Arabs should begin
to think of their relations with the
Jews in terms of an armistice.
1t is possible that Israeli repre-
sentatiyes here will participate in
a similar heart-to-heart talk with
DR.. Bunche and his top aides soon.
Peace Reports Denied.
Today's conference conceded with
reports published in Cairo, but
denied by Trans-Jordan officials
there, that King Abdullah of Trans
Jordan already is suggesting a |
separate peace between his country
and Israel.
Gen. Riley was reported to have
told the Arabs that as q military
man he believes time has come for
the Palestine truce of last July to
be replaced by some more suitable
basis for peace. The Jews, he
pointed out, are in complete control
of Palestine.
He was said to have advised them
Il will be difficult If not impossible
for the mediator to administer the
truce much longer-especially if he
has to enforce the Security Coun-
cil's latest order to Israel to with
draw from the strategic positions
she occupied In the Negeb in the
October 14-21 fighting with the
Egyptians.
To elaborate this order still fur
ther would be to make it even more
unworkable, Gen. Riley was quoted
as emphasizing.
Extension to Be Studied.
The Security Council is to take
up Monday British move to extend
to all Palestine the call for with
drawal Of Jewish troops from posi-
tions occupied since the beginning
Of the truce.
In effect this would summon
Israel to give up positions she took
in fighting with irregular Arabs in |
Northern .Galilee little over week
ago.
DR.. Bunche, in a report to the
Security Council today, said Israel's
troops now occupy Is villages inside
Lebanon and charged they engaged
in extensive and systematic loot
ing"
The report charged that Israeli
and Arab forces were guilty of a |
grave and inexcusable violation of
the truce" IN that fighting which
ragged several days along a wide
front.
DR.. Bunche's report on the fight
ing in Galilee said it was set off
when Arab liberation" forces led
by Fawzi Bey AL Kaukji allegedly
tried to prevent Israeli's forces from
supplying and strengthening their
settlement at Manara on the Leb-
anese border in the northeast finger
of Palestine.
u. N. Observers Barred.
He recalled that the U. N. ordered
a cease-fire in the area on October
% after which Kaukji's irregulars !
were to start withdrawing from
heights they had seized. The Arabs
accepted the order, he added, but
the Israeli commander accepted on
the condition that If the Arabs did
not move out within an hour they
would be driven out.
Ten minutes before the cease-fire
order was to become effective, at
pm, DR.. Bunche reported, the
1sraelis opened fire with artillery,
(see PALESTINE, Page A-9D