The Other Exodus Medley V. Cooke, M. P. Dandaleh, Salah

J. Shawwa

Agonising Misappraisal Herman Kahn Led Astray Vera Compton-Burnett, William Illingworth Christiansen and Beaverbrook Arthur Christiansen Asian Discrimination Dr. S. Soundranayagam The 1918 German Offensive Correlli Barnett Psychiatric Training Dr. A. Piney

Angola Refugees Denis Healey, MP, and others

THE OTHER EXODUS

SIR,—Before writing to comment on Mr. Childers's article The Other Exodus in your May 12 issue, I wanted to wait for a week to observe outside reactions.

Now, with that week gone by, I feel that the lack of effective rebuttal has borne out my first im- pression: this is an article of very great importance.

Here I must make myself quite clear. In my view--and I think most observers of the Middle East scene would agree—there is one point made in the article which overtowers all others. Straight fact only is involved. It is Mr. Childers's statement that he checked all radio broadcasts from the Middle East in 1948. and found that not a single appeal was ever made to Palestine Arabs by their leaders to leave their homes.

About Mr. Childers's other observations. I shall not comment except to refer to my own extensive study of the Arab refugee problem. embodied in my book Israel : A Blessing and a Curse: agd to say that my views remain substantially unchanged a Year after publication.

But before anyone's views on these questions can carry much weight, a basic obstruction to clear thinking about all these Arab-Israeli matters must be removed. I mean the consistently low quality of news and commentary on the Middle East avail- able to readers in our Western lands. And it is by illustratting how terribly low that quality has been that Mr. Childers has rendered an immense service.

For it would be hard to think of any point much more emphasised by Israel and the Zionists over the years than those alleged broadcasts calling on the Arabs of Palestine to evacuate their residences. And whether or not we ourselves regarded them as a vital factor in the total appraisal of the refugee question, it was always made abundantly clear that Israel's government did so regard them. It had, here, the backing of a strong public opinion which ac- cepted the information as authentic.

Thirteen years had to elapse, though, before any determined effort was ever made to find out the facts underlying that information. During which time many millions of words must surely have been written about the Arab refugees—stressing, too, the menace to world peace from a persistent failure to find a solution.

The implication, usually, was that the real facts about the flight were quite unobtainable. However, at the International Press Institute conference at Zurich in 1954 it was brought out that, where the Middle East is concerned, the press often displays an inertia which would be unthinkable in its cover- age of other regions. That situation has not improved much. Nor was much improvement possible without more concrete evidence of the possible damage being done. There is one school of thought, moreover, which professes to regard this go-easy tendency as desirable. 'By speaking out too plainly and strongly, you run the

risk of stirring up trouble,' the argument runs.

Just in the past week, however, Mr. Childers has supplied a most useful bit of that much-needed evi- dence; and Time, in its May 19 issue, has helped matters by giving a jolt to that 'don't stir things up' theory.

Rather amusingly, on the same date as that Time issue, the London Zionist paper the Jewish Ob- server invoked an Israel policy standpoint, i.e., state- craft, as a reason why Mr. Childers should not speak out as he did. Not disputing those findings about the alleged Arab broadcasts, the paper's criticism ended: 'If Mr. Childers wants the Israelis to commit national suicide, let him say so and give his reasons, but don't weep crocodile tears for the refugees, when all you do is encourage them in a course of action that can lead them only to war and still greater suffering and frustration.'

Nor is even this the end of interesting develop- ments of the past few days. In its May 18 (!) issue, the Times printed—without critical comment—the following: 'Mr. Ben-Gurion, the Israel Prime Minister . . . denied in the Knesset yesterday that a single Arab resident had been expelled by the Government since the establishment of the State of Israel and he said the pre-State Jewish underground had announced that any Arab could remain where he was. He said the fugitives had fled under the orders of Arab leaders.' (Italics mine.)

Here are developments which, if followed tip efficiently, could lead to a much wider opening of our news and information channels-- an essential step towards any solution of the actual problems of the Middle East. These aims would, however, be rendered the more difficult were Mr. Childers's disclosures to be taken tip as a mere propaganda weapon against Israel.—Yours faithfully,

IIEDLE Y V. COOKE

24 Great Bounds Drive, Southborough, Kent