British Policy oil Palestine

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 172, 24 July 1939, Page 9

British Policy oil Palestine

Minister’s Defence JEWISH ATTEMPT TO UNDERMINE ITS CHANCES LONDON, July 20. In the House of Commons debate on Palestine, tho Colonial Minister, Mr. Malcolm MacDonald, gave an assuraneo that, if the Council of tho League of Nations reached a decision which involved, in the Government’s view, alteration in the mandate, the Government would take no steps to bring about that alteration until Parliament had had an opportunity to consider it. Continuing his speech, Mr. MacDonald said that tho action by Britain which w’Oald do most to destroy any hopes there might bo of peace in Palestine would bo to determine on a policy and then either reverse it or hesitate about it, thus showing lack of confidence in it and therefore starting another long period of having no policy at all. Turning to the question ot the cloa ing of the quota of immigrants in the next six-monthly period because of the volume of illegal immigration, Mr MacDonald said: “We should have been committing a breach! of the White Paper policy if we had not taken that decision.” The Government was not indifferent to the fate of refugees from Central Europe. Mr MacDonald quoted the figure* of illegal immigration into Palestine, showing that 40 per cent, came from Toland and Rumania. What was going on about the immigration of Polish and Rumanian Jews made it perfectly clear, he said, that there was an organised movement to break the immigration law in Palestine for the sake of breaking the law, and to smash the White Paper policy for the sake of smashing that policy. Illegal immigration was aggravating the bitter hostility and hatred that existed between the Arabs and Jews In Palestine, and he thought the British Government was entitled to appeal to the Jewish authorities and the Jewish people to put a check upon it. Opposition speakers strongly opposed the Government’s policy as expressed In the recent White Paper. Mr Thomas Williams (Labour) said this policy was a further surrender to aggression and placed a premium on violence and terror. He criticised the suspension of Jewish immigration and declared that the Government was not fulfilling its pledges by using the iron hand, not against Hitler or the Mufti or the murderers or terrorists of Palestine, but against refugees fleeing from Nazi terrorism. Lieut.-Colonel Sir Arnold Wilson (Conservative) said that at best Palestine could never accommodate more than a small portion of refugees, and that nothing like the present situation had been envisaged at the time of the Balfour Declaration, promising the Jews a national home in Palestine. Mr George Mander (Liberal) said he believed it true that five of the seven members of the Permanent Mandates Commission had denounced the Government’s policy as incompatible with the terms of the mandate. ARABS KIDNAP AMERICAN MISSIONARY JERUSALEM, July 20. Eleven armed Arabs kidnapped an American missionary, Mr. Gerald Goldner, in the hills between Bethlehem and the Dead Sea. They are demanding a £IOOO ransom.