Monroe Doctrine Used for Mideast, Crum Tells HLU

Bartley C. Crum, a noted lawyer and member of the 1946 Anglo-American Committee on Inquiry into Palestine, charged last night that, "The Eisenhower Middle East Doctrine is an extension of the Monroe Doctrine into the Eastern Hemisphere."

"The doctrine is saying in effect that the Mideast is western territory, so everybody else better keep out," Crum told a Harvard Liberal Union audience.

Crum said that the doctrine involves an implicit moral commitment to protect the interests of Israel, including use of the Suez Canal for peaceful shipping. He echoed the hope of several Jewish leaders that the Gaza Strip not be returned to Egyptian jurisdiction until there is a final settlement of the whole Arab-Israeli dispute.

In referring to recent Egyptian riots over the administration of Gaza, Crum expressed his belief that "Nasser is trying his luck farther than I think it will go."

Crum declared "The only ones that can gain by the struggle between the Arabs and the Jews are the great powers--Russia and possibly America, too."

"I think it would be better," he added, "to have Nasser and Ben Gurion sit down together than to have Shepilov or America or England fish into the matter."

Crum's distaste for American foreign policy in the Middle East stems from his experiences after the Second World War with Anglo-American "duplicity and intrigue" in regard to allegedly unfulfilled promises to Israel.