LONDON: Prime Minister Attlee is reported ... as planning to seek within a fortnight an interim arrangement [for] Palestine…. Zionists, with the encouragement of President Truman’s letter to the British Premier, have been demanding 100,000 permits. Informed sources predicted, however, that Mr. Attlee would offer a quota of 1,500 to 2,000 immigration permits. It appears certain that the United States will be asked to participate in the ultimate solution of the age-old conflict between the Jews and Arabs. There is considerable division within the British Government.... The Foreign Office is concerned mainly with keeping peace in the Arab World. The Colonial Office is more inclined to favour the Jewish demands for lifting of immigration and landing restrictions on Palestine.

Particular urgency for at least a temporary solution is based on three factors: (1) Only about 3,000 Jewish immigration permits are to be distributed under terms of the White Paper which, Zionists insist, should be immediately abrogated…. (2) Both Jews and Arabs are armed, although illegally, and the growing tension increases the concern over possible bloody outbreaks. (3) Britain must prepare to turn the Palestine mandate into a United Nations Trusteeship.

Published in Dawn, October 15th, 2020