American "indifference to the fate of the Arab peoples" was responsible for the recent Communist penetration into oil-rich Iraq, Bartley Crum, a member of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry in Palestine in 1947, told a Liberal Union forum last night.

Speaking on "The Future of the Middle East," Crum charged that the United States failed to encourage the late king of Iraq to distribute his oil wealth among his countrymen. As a result, Crum added, American oil interests in Iraq are now "seriously jeopardized."

The only final solution to the crises facing the Middle East today, Crum continued, is a peace between Israel and her Arab neighbors. Such a peace would stabilize the area, halt the spread of Communism, and end the "state of feudalism" which exists in many Arab nations.

"There is nothing in the Middle Eastern picture which necessitates the present state of permanent war," Crum said. In fact, he noted, the Arab people themselves almost never sympathize with the "tirades of hatred" which various Arab leaders disseminate through their state-controlled press and radio.