Evening star., 1949-01-22
Disputes Mr.. Browns Statements

To the Editor Of The Star:
Constantine Browns column of January 16
which purports to interpret recent develop
lnents III the current Palestine situation, con-
tains a number of shocking inaccuracies and
distortions of fact. For the sake of brevlty,
l will refrain from reviewing in detail all the
errors allegations and misleading statements
appearing in his piece. However, feel COM
PEELED to call your attention to a few of the
most glaring examples
I was amazed to read in this usually we'll
informed column that: Cd the five British
planes doWned in Israel on January 8 were
well inside Egyptian territory when intercepted; ;
CD that they were unarmed; 90 that the
reconnaissance mission was requested by the
Egyptian government; and "a that the British
planes carried out the mission because of
London's Solemn obligations" to Cairo.
Mr.. Browns version of the unfortunate
incident is unique and differs in every detail
from stories cabled from Israel by the three
major wire services-Asseciated Press, United
Press and international News Service-as we'll
as by the New York Times correspondent Gene
Currivan, the New York Herald Tribune's Ken
meth Bilby, and host of other reliable Ameri-
can reporters.
The Israeli government reported that the
naissance were fully armed with loaded machine
guns and in addition, carried wing bombs when
intercepted by Israel fighters over territory
assigned to Israel under the November %
partition plan of the United Nations. This
version has been sustained by all United States
correspondents, by U. N. observers and even
more eloquenty by the testimony OF Raj
Pilot Frank Harvey Close who fell into Israeli
hands when he bailed out near Jewish settle
nent in the Negeb
Pilot Close was interviewed by three CORE
spondents representing the British French and
United States press. According to dispatch
to the New York Times he told the correspond
entS that he was aware at the time that their
planes were over Israel because, from previous
flying knowledge, he knew the frontier land
marks. He told the neWsmen: I'VE had received
information suggesting that Israeli forces had
crossed into Egypt. We had been instructed to
photograph their advance positions We arrived
at the front without seeing any troops at all
Whereupon We crossed the frontier. I know
the area"
Neither Close nor Flying Officer Timothy
McElhaw, the other RAF pilot captured, nor
even the British government claimed that the
British planes were unarmed. Pilot Close testi-
fled that he had instructions not to fire on
ground targets but to shoot our way out"
against hostile planes If trapped or outmaneu-
yered.
AS for Mr.. Browns assertion that Egypt ap-
pealed for the British reconnaissance under pro-
visions of the Anglo-Egyptian treaty of 1896,
the Egyptian Foreign Office has reiterated that
it has not asked Britain for assistance under
the treaty, which, in fact, it considers inopera-
tive. AS recently as August % the late prime
minister of Egypt, Nokrashy Pasha, told the
Security Council that the Egyptian government
considered the 1886 treaty as invalid. This
then is what Mr. Brown terms Brtain's solemn
obligation" to Egypt-a dead treaty invoked by
the British government presumably to justify
lis own intervention against Israel
HARVEY ROSENHOUSE,
Assistant Press Officer, Israeli Mission to
the United States.