London, Mar. 7.
Under international law a belligerent was at liberty to examine any mail, whether neutral or belligerent, which was brought voluntarily within its jurisdiction, declared Mr. R. A. Butler, Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, in the House of Commons last} night.
He was replying to a question by Mr. George Strauss, Labour member for Lambeth, North division, drawing attention to the indignation in the United States, over the search of a Pan-American clipper at Bermuda on January 18, Mr. Butler added that the British Government had decided to exercise this right at Bermuda as from Jan-wary 18, in respect of eastbound mails carried by the Pan-American Atlantic service.
Mr. Strauss wanted to know whether it was a fact that as a result of the British Government's action there had been great indignation among the American public and that the service now no longer stopped at Bermuda, and whether the action was not a serious blunder.
Mr. Butler: "I do not accept that at all (cheers). I think the Government's action was correct and, moreover justified by what was found in the mail.
Asked whether it, was possible to consider some sort' of arrangement that would satisfy the need of the British Government and a large section of American opinion, Mr. Butler replied that it was always their desire to find some sort of settlement agree-spite to both nations.—Reuter.
"The Arabs had equal rights to the rights of the Jews. We are going to protect those rights as well as we protect the rights of the Jews. If those rights of the Arabs are ignored, the Jewish national home will not prosper in Palestine, There can only be peace and progress in Palestine on the basis of a mutual] recognition of the rights of the two communities inhabiting the country."
In moving the resolution, Mr. Philip Noel-Baker recalled that the Opposition held last May that the Secretary of State's White Paper on Palestine was inconsistent with the Palestine Mandate.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.