Oozlebarts and Cantor

After a three-month study of Britain's year-old proposal for slicing the Holy Land into British-mandated, Arabic and Jewish States, members of His Majesty's Government's technical commission last week sailed from Haifa for London. Their pilgrimage to the Holy Land had been marked by an intense wave of Arab-Jewish terrorism. As the members departed, Britain's Colonial Secretary, youthful Malcolm MacDonald, arrived by air, spent two days secretly inspecting the security measures Britain has been forced to take.

No observer was ready last week to predict that the commission would place its approval on the original partition scheme. In fact, the New York Times's Near Eastern correspondent, Joseph M. Levy, went on record with the statement that the turbulent conditions in Palestine had convinced the British that two far-reaching changes must be made in the partition plan: 1) The proposed Jewish State must be reduced from 2,500 square miles to some 400, confined to the Sharon Valley, whose population is about 95% Jewish. 2) The Arab State idea must be abandoned. "Highest British authorities here believe that the Arabs are not yet fit for self-government and that therefore all Palestine outside the proposed Jewish

State should be administered by the British under a revised mandate." Meanwhile, zealous Jews and Arabs continued for the sixth successive week their murder-bent activities. In cities, although British troops stood guard at virtually every street corner, bombs were hurled and snipers picked off their victims in broad daylight. The total toll of the terrorism during previous weeks: Arabs, 155 killed, 278 injured; Jews, 72 killed, 217 injured.

In the interior, British armored cars rolled over rocky brown hills searching for Oozlebarts* (armed bands of Arabs).

According to reports, the Oozlebarts are now virtually masters in certain sections.

"During the day it is His Britannic Majesty's Government, while from nightfall to daybreak it is the rebels' government," cracked Arab villagers. The Oozlebarts, operating under an "unknown generalissimo" with headquarters at Damascus, have set up their own civil and military courts. Arab villagers prefer to take their squabbles to Oozlebart civil courts, which apply Islamic law and charge nothing (Palestine court fees are notoriously high). Oozlebart military courts dispense quick justice, sometimes death, to Arabs caught selling land to Jews.

Back in the U. S. last week after a successful 15-day drive to raise $500,000 in England for the transfer of refugee children from Central Europe to Palestine, crusading Comedian Izzy Iskovitch, better known as Eddie Cantor, proudly let it be known that young Palestine settlers have named the town of Kvutzat Aryeh in his honor. The children translated his first name as "Aryeh." Its meaning: "The Lion." Informed that Motor Magnate Henry Ford had accepted the Grand Cross of the German Eagle from the anti-Semitic German Government on the occasion of his 75th birthday fortnight ago, The Lion roared: "Mr. Henry Ford, in my opinion, is a damned fool for permitting the world's greatest gangster to give him this citation.

Doesn't he realize that the German papers, reporting the citation, said all Americans were behind Naziism? Whose side is Mr.

Ford on?"

*British corruption of an Arabic word, "Usabat," meaning band.

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