Arabs to Fight on Side of Winners

With recent developments in the Near East pointing toward increasing ferment in the Arab world, Philip W. Ireland, instructor in Government, yesterday pointed out that many Arab leaders, though by no means the majority, are willing to enter into alliance with the devil himself if that means promoting the Arab nationalist movement.

"Most Arabs believe that their only salvation lies in an eventual British victory," he stated, but a few "see in the present difficulties of Great Britain the opportunities to achieve full independence."

In any case the Arabs want to be on the winning side, Ireland emphasized, citing the authentic story of one Arab sheik during the last war who changed sides five times before riding to victory on the Allied bandwagon.

"Arabs, like all people who have suffered from despotism, respect power. The strength and ruthlessness of the Axis have made a profound impression on them. Great Britain, because of her reverse, has decreased in prestige," Ireland said.

On the other hand, Mussolini's record in Libya has shown that he falls far short of being the "Protector of Islam." In less than a generation of Italian rule, the Moslems in Eritrea have decreased from over a million to 400,000. And Hitler's prestige is not raised by his contemptuous references to the Arabs in "Mein Kampf."

Ireland, who has taught at the Universality of Beirut in Syria and travelled extensively in the Near East during the past 16 years, urged that the best

way to swing the 15,000,000 Arabs to the democratic side is to reaffirm promises of Arab independence and to increase British military prestige by hastening all aid across the Atlantic