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Mr. Warbey: That is what I refer d

Mr. Philips Price: That is a different plan. The plan of November, 1947, shut the Arabs off from the sea. The Berna- dotte plan does not. It is much fairer, for that reason. I know the Zionists think that because of Arab stupidity in not accept- ing the Bernadotte plan at once, and be- cause they have won military successes, they can revert to the situation which was

Foreign Affairs HOUSE OF COMMONS

[MR. PHILIPS Price.] among the Zionists all the time. Our Government are perfectly right in taking up the stand of resisting extreme Zionist demands and in helping to get a fair deal for the weaker side, the Arab side, be- cause it has not got the American millions behind it. Unfortunately, it must be said that the Arabs in many ways have been their own worst enemy in recent months. Intransigence, muddle and intrigue inside the Arab States are largely responsible for their plight. Transjordan is the one country that has come well out of the last 12 months. The Zionists may laugh and gloat over the situation, but let them not laugh and gloat too long and too loudly.

The Arabs are in a bad way, partly through their own fault, but the day of Arab renaissance will come some time. There are 25 million of them spread over a very large area which has big resources. They are an intelligent people whom the Zionists must reckon with. The Zionists cannot ride roughshod over them, though they think they can today. All well- wishers of the Arabs must hope that they will put their house in order and avoid the spread of Communism which un- doubtedly will come if they allow the

of affairs to present state

continue. Russia will be only too glad to switch from the support of the Zionists to the support of the Arabs if they think it will suit their book. Meanwhile I see no reason why we should capitulate to the extreme demands of the Zionists or jet- tison the Bernadotte plan.

The right hon. and learned Gentleman the Member for Montgomery (Mr. C. Davies) and

my hon. Friend

the Member for Nelson and Colne (Mr. S. Silverman) seemed to suggest in their speeches yesterday that we should jettison the Bernadotte plan and base a settlement on the military situation irrespective of what is right.

Mr. Warbey (Luton): Why does the hon. Gentleman attach such high autho- rity to the Bernadotte plan when he him- self was prepared-he advocated it-to jettison the plan of the United Nations General Assembly?

Mr. Philips Price: At no time have I objected to the Bernadotte plan. I objected to the plan of December last on quite a different basis.

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much more favourable to them. In other words, they are trying to impose by force, or trying to get the United Nations to im- pose for them by force, what they could not get under the Bernadotte plan. That is the course that the right hon. and learned Member for Montgomery and the hon. Member for Nelson and Colne ad- vised the Government to support.

I hope that the Government have got some plan for dealing with the tragic situ- ation of Arab refugees. I know that the Ι Government have given £1 million. should like to know under what conditions it was given and how it will be admini- stered. What kind of machinery is there for administering this money?

There is one Arab country which seems to be making use of the Arab defeat in Palestine to impose a reign of terror at home. I refer to Egypt. When I was passing through Egypt recently, I had some of my books taken from my small luggage by the Egyptian police. The books were finally returned but they were on Hindu philosophy and Middle Eastern history. I asked the question if they were thinking of banning the Koran as seditious literature. One Arab State at least is trying to suppress discussion, because it dare not tell its own people what has happened. We must keep firm in our relations with such a country, though, of course, it is no affair of ours how Egypt is governed. We must also be quite firm in our intention to stay in the Canal zone, till we get a full treaty with Egypt on all outstanding issues; and in regard to the Sudan, we must stand firm there too and see that we do not leave until the Sudanese are ready to take over, and that we are not going to hand over the country to the present regime in Egypt.

Finally, these are the two points in Asia, the Middle East and the Far East, where the danger lies. The cold war

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Foreign Affairs whether the Government are prepared to act upon it or not, and, if not, the reasons for not doing so.

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has receded somewhat in Europe, but it is flaming up in the Far East and is incipient in the Middle East. I hope the Government will bear all these points in mind. I agree with my hon. Friend the Member for Broxtowe that it is desir- able that we should try to have an under- standing with these two worlds, but we cannot allow the forceful expansion of the one into the other, and we should try to confine the Soviet world to Eastern Europe and Northern Asia so that it will no longer be a menace to the countries outside.

2.42 p.m.

Mr. John Foster (Northwich): The previous speaker took to task the right hon. and learned Member for Mont- gomery (Mr. C. Davies) and the hon. Member for Nelson and Colne (Mr. S. Silverman) about the Palestine question. I feel that these criticisms cannot be applied to the suggestion made by my right hon. Friend the Member for War- wick and Leamington (Mr. Eden) and also by my right hon. Friend the Member for Woodford (Mr. Churchill), and I would like the Under-Secretary when he replies to say how he meets that sugges- tion. The Government are asked to create conditions in Palestine that will lead to a possible settlement agreed by both Jew and Arab, and, as the first step towards creating those conditions, the suggestion is that, instead of standing at arm's length from the position in Pales- tine, which is a reality, they should at least open informal diplomatic inter- course, because, after that has taken place, it will inevitably lead to de facto recognition. The reason for that is be- cause de facto recognition is the facing of reality. If there is a State in Pales- tine and an authority which is exercis- ing control, even though it is unpleasant, that is a fact which has to be recognised. The whole history of de facto recogni- tion is a history of facing the facts, some- times pleasant, as when we recognised the budding South American Republics at the beginning of the nineteenth century, sometimes unpleasant, as when we had to accord de facto recognition to Franco in 1939 and to the conquest of Abyssinia. In this case, the facing of facts will lead towards an improvement in the conditions in which a settlement can be achieved, and I hope that the Under-Secretary will deal with that suggestion and will say

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The present situation is ludicrous. One of our consuls may write to the Mayor of Tel Aviv regarding a matter in which British interests are at stake, but the mayor asks him to refer to the Provisional Government of Israel. The unfortunate consul cannot get any answer, because he is not allowed to approach that Government because we do not recognise that it exists at all. At a recent Radio Convention in Mexico, a former signals officer of the Eighth Army who is now the head of the communications of Israeli, attended, and, as I understand the matter, the British Government took exception to his being present because, they said, he did not represent any recognised Government. It was then left open to the Soviet representative to score a point by saying My Government recognises it." Is it not rather foolish of us not to face these facts? I ask the Under- to consider this practical Secretary suggestion and to take the first step, which is to institute informal diplomatic intercourse.

The other matter which I wish to raise concerns the criticisms by my right hon. Friend of the Chancellor of the Duchy regarding his attitude to Western Union. The charge which he ignored was that the Chancellor is accused of taking the view that only by the establishment of Socialism in each of the component parts of Western Union can the plan be made to work. The Chancellor did not deal with that at all. He quoted at inordinate length some quite irrelevant observations made by him at the Labour Party Con- ference, and then he said "I do not find any evidence of sabotage there." Of course, he would be unlikely to quote the further passages which would have shown the evidence of sabotage. He should have faced the facts of these further quotations which state in terms that Western Union would not work unless each component part was Socialist. What we object to about that is that it is too narrow a view for the chief delegate of the United Kingdom.

Mr. John Hynd (Sheffield, Attercliffe): Is there anything at all incongruous in a Socialist believing that this arrangement will not be effective unless its components

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