Ext 6116/46(S) 'Secret Weekly Political Intelligence Summaries, nos 356-416, August 1946-November 1947' [‎110r] (219/978)

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Jamal al Husaini (see last week s
Summary) appears to have reached an
understanding with the Mufti and will
lead the Palestine delegation to the United
Nations Assembly.
On the evening of the 12th September
Sami Taiha, General Secretary of the
Palestine Arab Workers’ Society, was shot
dead in Haifa by two men believed to be
Arabs. They escaped. The motive of the
crime is probably political, as Sami had
recently been criticized in the Husaini
press for resolutions of his society sup
porting Musa el Alami.
Illegal Immigration
The disembarkation at Hamburg of the
Jews on board the Runnymede Park was
accompanied by much opposition, although
the stories published by the Zionist press
were wildly exaggerated and designed,
presumably, to influence American opinion
unfavourably to Great Britain. The
possibility that the immigrants may accept
the offer, which is still open to them, to go
to France is being opposed quite regardless
of the best interests of the immigrants
themselves.
The Jewish Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. appears to be in no
way discouraged by the removal of these
people to Germany, if the pronouncements
of Mrs. Goldie Meirson are any indication
of their official policy. On the 9th Septem
ber she announced that the Jewish people
would continue to do everything possible to
maintain the flow of immigrants “ by all
means ” until a Jewish State is established.
Iraq
The Prime Minister left Bagdad for
Amman on the 11th September and is
going on to Damascus and Beirut for the
Arab League meeting to discuss the
U.N.S.C.O.P. report. He is much
worried about the trouble between Trans
jordan and Syria, and plans to urge all
three heads of States to put an end to
polemics and to maintain Arab unity.
The Regent, who is still in this country,
has suggested to the Iraqi Prime Minister
that he should come to London early in
October to open negotiations for a revision
of the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty, a question
which has been under informal discussion
for some time. This the Prime Minister
is unwilling to do, in view of the unsettled
condition of the Middle East, and he would
prefer to have further preliminary dis
cussions in Bagdad before formal
negotiations take place.
Persia
Qawam’s new Cabinet, which was
announced on the 11th September, is sub
stantially the same as before. The Prime
Minister himself will hold the Portfolio of
the Minister of the Interior, and other
changes are :—
Foreign Affairs : Musa Nuri Isfandiari.
Posts and Telegraphs : Jawad Bushiri.
National Economy : Muhammad Sajjade.
Minister without Portfolio: Mustafa
Adi.
The Ministry of Justice, previously held
by Mustafa Adi, has not yet been filled,
and the fate of the Ministry of Labour has
not yet been decided.
On the 10th September the Ettelat pub
lished articles suggesting that Great
Britain and Russia were about to come to
an agreement recalling the 1907 agreement
defining their respective ‘‘spheres of
influence ’ ’ in Persia. This allegation is,
of course, entirely unfounded, as the Per
sian Government have now recognised, for
Qawam, in a statement to the press on the
13th September which gave a version of
what His Majesty’s Ambassador had said
to him that was very liable to misinterpre
tation, explained his own position in
respect of the two demands presented by
the Soviet Ambassador (see Summaries
Nos. 405 and 406), and expressed his entire
disbelief in the reports of a secret Anglo-
Soviet Agreement.
Rumours of concentrations of Soviet
troops on the Persian frontier intended by
the Russians to create an impression that
the Red Army will re-occupy Azerbaijan
and northern Khorasan if the Majlis reject
the oil agreement, have affected the morale
of some individual Persians, and some
residents of Tabriz, who know that the
Russians regard them as reactionaries, are
preparing to leave for parts of Persia
further from the frontier. There is, how
ever, no sign that the war of nerves has
seriously affected Government circles in
Tehran.
THE FAR EAST
China
During the past three weeks little of event delivered by President Truman’s special
has occurred in the political field. The fact-finding Ambassador, General Wede-
“ straight from the shoulder ” statement meyer, on the eve of his departure for