tress Release from Free Arabia Committee An Emergency Conference of the Free Arabia Committee was held at the New Ambassadors Hotel, Upper woburn Place, W.C.1. on Sunday, 2nd July 1967. The object was to present signed testimonies by three doctors. ana photographic evidence regarding the use of napalm by Israeli forces against the Arabs. The meeting was well attended and the Committee was described as the only British organisation of Solidarity with the 100 million Arab peoples. Mr. Faris Glubb, son of Glubb Pasha, faced a barrage of accusations and penetrating questions on various delicate matters. : The Daily Telegraph representative accused the Committee of being biased the answer being that the Committee was merely that of solidarity with the Arab peoples but NOT specifically with their various Governments. Signed statements by three doctors stating that they had treated wounded soldiers and civilians suffering from wounds probably caused by napaln, were presented. Horrible photographs of burnt victims and burnt-out RED CRESCENT (equivalent of our Red Cross) ambulances were taken by some. A message personally given to the Committee by Princess Dina (King Hussain's ex-wife now in London) caused some interest as she is expected to come into the news shortly. fhe message reads
"There was a very generous response to the appeal I made on
June 16th on behalf of the Arab victims of the war, particularly
in Jordan, on behalf of those same people, I thank all those
who have felt the human problem and answered the need. In
view of the acute need for shelter, food and medical care, which
I witnessed personally during my recent trip, I renew my
appeal to all those who can help in kind or money. I will see
to it that contributions are delivered to those who need it most.
Money to Arab Relief Fund c/o Westminster Bank Ltd., Piccadilly,
Wel. Goods to Free Arabia Committee, 5 Bow Lane, 5.C.4." There are some 200,000 hogeless refugees living in the open under primitive shelters and rumours of typhoid and dystentery amongst children are already reaching the outside world. £700. worth of blankets, medecine and material for babies has already been delivered by Princess Dina. The following is the text of one of the signed statements presented to the press:
"Prom early Thursday morning (June 8) until mid-morning on
Peiday (June 9), I participated in operating room and ward
activities in the Military Base Hospital in Amman, Jordan.
One floor of the hospital containing 150 patients, which was
around 20 per cent of total admissions, were burn cases consistent
with burns made by napaln. All of these were second-degree};
the third-degree burn cases could not be evacuated from the
pattle-field area. I visited the morgue of the hospital with
the resident pathologist and saw corpses of soldiers who had
been bandaged at the front and who had burns on areas of their
bodies other than those bandaged. This indicated that raids had
been conducted on ambulances inwhich these soldiers were being
evacuated. The pathologist confirmed that the burns had been
inflicted by napalm." ie. Selim: Gash,
American University Hospital.
¥ Cote Exposed on Vietnam and Aden - from John Blair The strange behaviour of leading members of the Young Communist League at a recent meeting of the Glasgow Youth for Peace in Vietnam has caused comment in Glasgow political circles. At the A.G.M. of this body on 26th June, a resolution was put forward by Vietnam Solidarity Campaign supporters and Young Socialists that eny medical aid collected by the Campaign should be sent to the National Liberation Front and North Vietnam. Anxious to preserve their alliance with the Student Christian Movement (a body which its spokesman had previously described as being composed of teveryone from fascists to communists!) the vast majority of Y.C.L. members present, including their District Organiser, voted against this. Instead it was agreed to send aid to 'those areas where it was most needed'. At the end of the meeting, a member of the V.S.C. announced that a demonstration had been called by a group of individuals for the following Saturday to call for the immediate withdrawal of British troops from Aden. Participants in the Y.P.V. meeting were invited and it was explained that events in Aden could lead to a ‘British Vietnam'. The reaction of the aforementioned leading Young Communist was to protest vehemently to the Chairman that such announcements were out of order in a body devoted to Vietnam. Aden had ‘nothing to do with what we are here to discuss’. It would seem that in the interests of a very doubtful form of unity, the Young Communist League is prepared to. sacrifice its principles of solidarity with national liberation movements and to abandon any attempt to educate its 'allies! in the basic facts about imperialism - British acd American. Reports of this meeting will, no doubt, be received with interest in the branches of the Y.C.L. Oppositionists graft Open Letter to Young Communists by Claude Andersecn Recently a group of oppositionists in the Young Commmist League reproduced the report of the Young Liberals on the Y.C.L. congress in the form of an open letter to all Young Communists. The open letter also emphasised that the oppositionists had no leanings towards the Liberals or their capitalist politics, and that it was in this form because this was the only way that @ real opinion could be expressed without fear of expulsion. Here are some extracts from the Young Liberal report which, 18 can be seen are quite astute criticisms coming from a bourgeois youth organisation. "Recent actions by the Y.C.L. leadership in compromisi j j
to participate in the "Youth for Peace ta Vietman" yp oe of a more general easing of Marxism for "Left Unity",...the writer then proceeds to expose in detail, the 'democracy' that prevailed at the congress - "However, moderation on policy did not man any easing on discipline and f many observers and new 'comrades' alike, the 26th Y.C.L. Congress proved a 7 great eye-opener as to how Party policy is 'tontrolled". In a frenzied attempt to appear democratic, the Y.C.L. leadership managed to create mor contempt than admiration for their organisation.....the Y.C.L. officers suite keen to impress on everyone that the ultimate in democracy was being used; this was not the view held by many observers or delegates. ferrymanderin tactics caused what could have been an important conference to tum into ° a continuous satire on democracy acted by the National Committee." -— th it also seems to recognise the travesty and distortions of Marxism t t the ae
Cont'd. onvnosite 7