The New York Times Book of World War II, 1939-1945

by The New York Times

  The proclamation stated that as of midnight the National Council would act as a Provisional State Council and that its executive organ, the National Administration, would constitute a provisional government until elected bodies could be set up before Oct. 1.

  Israel, the proclamation went on, will be open to immigration by Jews from all countries “of their dispersion.” She will develop the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants, it added, and will be based on precepts of liberty, justice and peace taught by the Hebrew prophets.

  The new state, according to the proclamation, will uphold the “social and political equality of all its citizens without distinction of race, creed or sex” and “will guarantee full freedom of conscience, worship, education and culture.”

  The statement pledged safeguarding of the sanctity and inviolability of shrines and holy places of all religions. It also contained a promise to uphold the principles of the United Nations.

  There was great cheering and drinking of toasts in this blacked-out city when word was received that the United States had recognized the provincial Government. The effect on the people, especially those drinking late in Tel Aviv’s coffee houses, was electric. They even ran into the blackness of the streets shouting, cheering and toasting the United States.

  MAY 17, 1948

  5 ARMIES ADVANCE

  Some Arab Units Said to Be In Israel—Jerusalem Battle Growing

  AIR RAIDS KILL FIVE JEWS

  Reprisals on Cairo Threatened—Haganah Captures Latrun, Pushes Ahead in Nort

  By The Associated Press.

  CAIRO, Egypt, May 16—The invasion armies of five Arab nations hammered away with air and artillery attacks today at outlying Jewish settlements in Palestine, dispatches from Arab capitals said. [Tel Aviv, the provisional capital of Israel, was bombed again, and violent fighting continued in Jerusalem. The Haganah reported the capture of Lat-run, on the Tel Aviv–Jerusalem highway, and an Arab Legion communiqué announced the capture of Lydda airfield.] An official Arab military source in Amman, capital of Trans-Jordan, said that the Egyptian army had occupied the town of Majdal, fourteen miles north of Caza on the Palestine coastal plain. This source also said that Syrian forces had occupied Samakh, south of Galilee, on the southern lip of Lake Tiberias.

  The Egyptians were reported to be setting up civil administrations in all occupied areas.

  Syrian troops, according to dispatches, also occupied a camp adjoining Samakh and shelled two Jewish settlements—Masada and Sarajulean. Nuqeib, on the eastern shore of Galilee, was encircled, shelled and bombed by planes.

  SYRIAN LOSSES REPORTED

  A Syrian Air Force squadron was reported to have been supporting Lebanese troops in their advance. Syrian losses were given as one killed and wounded, with seven Jews reported killed.

  An Iraqi motorized force was reported attacking Tiberias on the western shore of Galilee. The town was recently occupied by the Jews.

  Fadl tribal warriors supported by Syrian armor were said to be moving in the lush Hule Valley, part of Israel under the boundaries set in the United Nation’s decision on partition.

  A combined Syrian and Lebanese striking force was moving into the northern coastal area from the Lebanese frontier, a Damascus dispatch said.

  An Arab Legion communiqué said that Legion troops that had recently accepted the surrender of the Jewish settlement of Kfar Etzion had taken over the colonies of Naureen, Bayaun, Rifodina and Sacara as well.

  The Legion declared that it had taken 300 prisoners, including eighty-six women and children. The communiqué said that the women and children had been turned over to the Red Cross in Jerusalem while the male prisoners had been interned. Captured supplies and ammunition were distributed among local Arab volunteers, the communiqué said.

  LYDDA’S CAPTURE REPORTED

  It added that Lydda airfield was captured yesterday by the Arab Liberation Army, along with Kalandiya colony and an adjoining airfield between Jerusalem and Ranullah.

  In Amman an Arab source said that heavy artillery of the Iraqi Army had reached the upper Jordan valley.

  Iraqi infantry crossed the Jordan at Jisr al Majami and captured the Rutenburg hydroelectric station at the junction of the Yarmuk and Jordan Rivers.

  The heavy artillery units crossed a temporary bridge erected to take the place of one dynamited by the Jews, advanced west and captured Geaher, nine miles north of Beisan, Haganah-held communications center for northeastern Palestine.

  A published communiqué of the Egyptian volunteer forces in southern Palestine stated that it had wiped out a Haganah convoy yesterday near Dei el Ublah on the coast nine miles southwest of Gaza. Regular Egyptian Army troops have reached Gaza, it said.

  JUNE 21, 1948

  Editorial

  THE BATTLE FOR GREECE

  What looks like a determined and perhaps final effort to end the Greek civil war was launched yesterday on the rugged mountain sector around Mount Grammos. There General Markos’ depleted guerrilla forces are facing 70,000 royal troops advancing from three sides. The Greek Army, equipped with modern American weapons and advised by top American field officers, is now a formidable body. If it can overrun the entrenched rebels the long blood-letting may cease at last.

  Greece is the one front in Europe where Russia, masked by her Balkan satellites, has dared to foment actual warfare. Elsewhere she has relied on infiltration, falsehood, sabotage and treason. For a while her bold venture prospered. Northern Greece, except for a few cities, was a shambles or a wilderness. Russia’s longed-for window on the Mediterranean appeared about to open. When the British pulled out and the Americans took over, the Greek state seemed tottering into chaos. Now much has changed. Greece is rising once more from the ashes of desolation and despair. For the first time since the Great War she is able to organize the inherent power of her people to crush an alien-born rebellion.

  Greek government commandos equipped with British berets and American fur-trimmed jackets, 1948.

  There have been many signs lately that Russia may be trying to devise some face-saving formula to liquidate her Greek commitments. Bulgaria is seeking to renew diplomatic relations with Athens, which she could not do without Moscow’s consent. Marshal Tito, failing to obtain Trieste or Carinthia, has toned down Yugoslav aggressiveness, and disillusion over the Greek venture is spreading. General Markos has already lost a third of his forces, and his men are surrendering at an increasing rate. The Congress of the United States has just voted further financial aid for Greece. The barrier against Russia’s drive for the Mediterranean is stronger today than it has ever been.

  JUNE 24, 1948

  U. S. TO OPEN TALKS ON WESTERN PACT

  By BERTRAM D. HULEN

  Special to The New York Times.

  WASHINGTON, June 23—Under-Secretary of State Robert A. Lovett forecast at a news conference today that the State Department would soon begin discussions through diplomatic channels with the nations belonging to the Western European Union.

  These discussions will be based on the Vandenberg resolution, adopted by the Senate, which proposes strengthening the United Nations and developing regional defense organizations within the world organization, and includes the possibility of military support by the United States.

  This diplomatic development today was one of two regarded here as pointing to a clearer insight into relations between Russia and the Western world. The other was the surprise conference in Warsaw by representatives of the Soviet and its Eastern European satellites.

  The Warsaw meeting was called to consider the plan of the London conference of six Western states for the organization of Western Germany, and presumably the probable impact of the European Recovery Program and other questions.

  CALLED REASONABLE EXPECTATION

  It was reasonable to expect, Mr. Lovett added, that such a conference would be called after Congress had passed the European Recovery Program and the plan for a Western German state had been developed.

 
It is believed that indications of which way the wind is blowing may become discernible when the Big Four and the Danubian countries meet in Belgrade on July 30 in an effort to agree upon freedom of navigation for the Danube.

  Because of the importance of the river to East-West commerce, it is felt that this conference will demonstrate whether Russia and the West can negotiate. If the conference should be successful, according to some forecasts, it might well turn out to be the opening wedge for the resumption of negotiations on other outstanding problems. While the approach to the members of the Western Union—Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, which are cooperating under the Brussels pact—will be preliminary, the ultimate objective will be to carry out the terms of the Vandenberg resolution, Mr. Lovett said.

  GIVES BASIS FOR ASSOCIATION

  This resolution declares that the basis for association by the United States with regional defense pacts is that they must be important to this country, that the other countries involved agree to help themselves and that provision should be made for continuing effective cooperation among the countries.

  While Mr. Lovett was not prepared to discuss the prospect of United States military support for the Western Union, it was predicted in other circles that military conversations would follow promptly the preliminary diplomatic discussions.

  JUNE 25, 1948

  ARABS FORMULATE POSITION ON PEACE

  Formal Agreement with Israel Held Unlikely But Long Halt in Hostilities Is Seen

  By DANA ADAMS SCHMIDT

  Special to The New York Times.

  BEIRUT, Lebanon, June 24—King Abdullah’s trip to Cairo and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and Abdul Rahman Azzam Pasha’s visit to Beirut and Damascus, Syria, have set in motion a round of intensive diplomatic activity that is expected to culminate in formulation of the Arab attitude toward Count Folke Bernadotte’s mediation efforts. This is due to come at a meeting of the Arab League political commission, beginning Saturday.

  Lebanon and Syria were opposed from the start to the acceptance of the Palestine cease-fire. Their leaders in public statements have shown more reluctance than those of any other Arab state to transforming the truce into a peace.

  Iraq’s forces had only just begun to go into action at the time of the cease-fire, and Egypt’s had been by no means fully committed. But the last word in the Arab consultations is likely to be up to King Abdullah, whose Arab Legion has achieved the principal Arab military successes and is best equipped to occupy Palestinian territory.

  FORMAL PEACE NOT EXPECTED

  Many neutral observers who have had access to both Arab and Israeli areas in recent weeks believe that a clear-cut formal peace between Jews and Arabs is most improbable. In principle, Arab and Israeli objectives remain as irreconcilable as ever. No Arab statesman is going to sign an agreement recognizing Israel’s sovereignty and the right to unlimited immigration and none of the Israeli leaders is prepared to sign an agreement for anything less.

  But such observers also believe that if, as reportedly stated by a London Foreign Office spokesman, a tacit understanding on Middle Eastern questions has been reached between Britain and the United States and if Count Bernadotte avoids confronting Jews and Arabs with hard yes or no questions, the fighting in Palestine may be ended for some time to come.

  With every day that the fighting is postponed its resumption becomes psychologically more difficult. In some places refugees are returning home. In Jerusalem the security Council’s Truce Commission is working on plans to give the Arabs access to their homes in the Jewish-held new city and to give the Jews access to the Wailing Wall.

  It is planning a resumption of the water supply to Arab and Jewish parts of the town. Local arrangements have been made to permit Arabs and Jews to harvest their crops. United Nations observers are on the spot at the most critical points.

  Latest indications reaching diplomatic quarters are that King Abdullah would accept the internationalization of Jerusalem if the Jews agreed to internationalize Haifa and give up their claim to most of the Negeb. On these points the prospects for agreement seem brightest.

  Most of the Arab countries appeared determined to maintain some form of economic blockade of Israel whatever other arrangements may be made.

  JUNE 26, 1948

  BERLIN SIEGE ON AS SOVIET BLOCKS FOOD

  Clay Declares Three-Zone Regime Is Near—London Cabinet Discusses Issue

  By DREW MIDDLETON

  Special to The New York Times.

  BERLIN, June 25—About 2,250,000 Germans in the Western sectors of Berlin came face to face with the grim specter of starvation today as the siege of those sectors began in earnest.

  The Soviet Military Administration banned all food shipments from the Soviet-controlled areas into Berlin as part of its calculated policy of starving the people of the Western sectors into the acceptance of the Communist demand for the withdrawal of the Western powers.

  Although they see dark days ahead, the Berliners remained calm. Those in the Western sectors changed their marks for the new Deutsche mark of the Western powers with a minimum of disturbance.

  Straightaway a brisk black Bourse developed in which one Deutsche mark was sold for up to thirty of the new Russian-sponsored marks, which the Germans call “tapetengeld,” or wall paper money.

  CLAY AND ROBERTSON MEET

  Although Generals Clay and Sir Brian Robertson, British Military Governor, conferred this afternoon, no announcement of policy toward the Russian siege was made after their conference.

  The desperate situation in which the strategy of starvation is being exerted ruthlessly by the Russians for political ends, has been lifted out of the hands of the Military Governors to Washington, London and Paris.

  According to official figures sent to London yesterday the present food situation in the Western sectors is more serious than has been admitted.

  These figures were based on the food supplies available for all of Berlin June 15. Since then there has been very little addition to the existing stocks because of the increasing severity of the Soviet blockade and, of course, constant consumption.

  It is estimated that the following food stocks are on hand today for all Berlin, including the Soviet sector: Seventeen days’ supply of bread grains and flour, thirty-two days’ supply of cereals, forty-eight days’ supply of fats, twenty-five days’ supply of meat and fish, forty-two days’ supply of potatoes and twenty-six days’ supply of skimmed and dried milk.

  FOODSTUFF STORES SCATTERED

  These foodstuffs are scattered throughout the city in warehouses. Most of those containing bread grains and flour stocks are in the Soviet sector and henceforth the stocks will not be available to the Western sectors.

  The commandants of the three Western sectors have replied to the Soviet ban by forbidding the shipment of any food from their sectors into the Russian sector. Since the people of the Soviet sector can be supplied by the entire Soviet zone, the order, although impressive in tone, means little.

  A more telling blow at the economy of the Soviet zone was leveled by the bipartite Economic Commission of the United States and British zones in Frankfort on the Main, which suspended “indefinitely” the shipment of all classes of goods from coal to fountain pens into the Soviet zone. This embargo was added to that imposed by the British authorities last night on Ruhr coal and steel for the Soviet zone.

  There was no indication that these measures had affected the Soviet blockade, which became more complete today when six barges from Hamburg, five of them carrying food, were stopped outside Berlin. Thus the Russians have added the blockade of incoming canal traffic to those already existing for railroads and highways.

  The only manner in which the Western powers can save the food situation is to fly in additional supplies when it becomes serious. A daily lift of about 2,500 tons of food would be necessary to feed the people of the Western zones and capacity of the present United States–British air transport commands is already filled with the
task of supplying the military personnel and the civilian military government employes of the two powers.

  Berliners buying goods on the city’s market, during the occidental zone blockade by Russia, June 1948.

  The morale within the Western sectors continues to be fairly good, but the Berliners of 1948 are not equipped physically or emotionally to withstand the sort of siege that the Soviet measures foreshadow without some indication of outside assistance.

  There were a few incidents during the daylight hours. Two truckloads of Germans distributing anti-Western leaflets were chased unsuccessfully by United States constabulary patrols this morning. German policemen reported that the leaflets contained a long attack on General Clay for his part in the so-called “the rape of Germany.”

  JUNE 27, 1948

  EAST AND WEST HEADING FOR GERMAN SHOWDOWN

  Russians Threaten to Starve People Of Berlin in Order to Gain Their Ends

  By DREW MIDDLETON

  Special to The New York Times.

  BERLIN, June 26—Storm signals are flying in Berlin. Political thunderheads which have been piling up since the breakdown of the Council of Foreign Ministers meeting last December have burst and all Germany and Berlin in particular is lashed by a major political struggle. Today the two great power groups of the West and East are moving toward a showdown across the shattered capital of the enemy they joined to defeat.