A JEWISH HOME

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26199, 9 July 1946, Page 6

A JEWISH HOME

UNRESTRICTED IMMIGRATION ANGLO-AMERICAN ACTION URGED The opinion that Britain should adopt the Anglo-American Commission's recommendation that 100,000 Jews should be allowed to enter Palestine and that she should take a strong stand with the Arabs in the Middle East countries was expressed by the Rev. L. Sale-Harrison, in an interview with an Otago Daily Times reporter yesterday morning. Dr Sale-Harrison, who is at present giving a series of lectures in Dunedin, has made a keen study of the Palestinian question over a long period of years, and has made many trips in the Near East countries. He was born in Britain and came to New Zealand as a small boy in 1890, and later went to Australia and America. For some years now he has been travelling in the United States and Canada on Bible Conference work. He is accompanied on his present visit by his wife, who is an American by birth.

Calling the Arab’s Bluff

. “In the First World War a Jewish scientist came to our aid at a very critical time,” Dr Sale-Harrison said. “The Allies were desperately short of T.N.T., and Weizemann. a Jewish research chemist in London, discovered how to obtain acetone from vegetable substances, mainly maize, and made it possible to continue the manufacture of the vital explosive. He refused to take a monetary reward. Instead, he asked that the British Government should reward him by providing for his Jewish people a national home in Palestine. The Balfour Declaration was the Government’s answer.

“By allowing unrestricted immigration of Jews into Palestine we would be making an honest attempt to pay our debt to Weizmann and to the tens of thousands of Jews who fought for us in the recent war,” Dr Sale-Harrison said. “The Jews have a right to a national home.”

Dr Sale-Harrison pointed out, however, that it should be remembered that the Balfour Declaration did not create Palestine as a national home for the Jews. It merely stated that it would stand behind the Jews in their desire to establish a national home in Palestine, which was a different thing entirely. The White Paper later broke the spirit of the declaration by restricting immigration. “The British standpoint during the war is understandable,” Dr Sale-Har-rison said, “but conditions , have changed. With war with Germany looming, Britain was faced with a threat by the Moslems in India of a holy war if she gave way to the Jews in Palestine; and. at the same time Britain greatly desired the Arab friendship and support. But after the dangers of the war period passed, Britain pandered too much to the Arabs. It is essential now that she should take a strong stand, to say that this must be done and to see that it is done. Anyone who has served in Egypt will know that it is easy to call the Arab’s bluff. King Saud threatens to stop British and American oil concessions if the Jews are favoured in Palestine. We should call his bluff, too, for he cannot benefit from his oilfields without British and American help." It was not the Palestinian Arab who objected to Jewish immigration, Dr Sale-Harrison said. He had spoken to hundreds of these Arabs and they were in favour of Jews being allowed to enter the country. The immigrant Arabs in Palestine were causing all the trouble, and behind them was the sinister figure of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. Influence of the Mufti “The Grand Mufti is a very dangerous man,” Dr Sale-Harrison said. “He is the spiritual head of the Moslems in the Near East, and at one time had control of the Moslem benevolent funds. When he used this money for political purposes the British took it from him and placed it in the keeping of another Arab. This stroke robbed him of much of his political power, and it turned him strongly against Britain. The Mufti is not so much against the Jews as against the new ways of life they have introduced in Palestine. The Arab people there have gained a new freedom and the Mufti does not want this. He prefers that they should be kept down and under his power.

“The great influence of the Mufti was revealed at the conference of Jews and Arabs which Mr Neville Chamberlain called in London,”. Dr Sale-Har-rison continued. “It was found there that 9 of the 12 Arab delegates were appointed by the Grand Mufti. The other three were Palestinian Arabs who were friendly towards the Jews. When the leader of the Arab delegation, a Palestinian-born Arab, returned to Palestine he was assassinated. The French let us down over the Mufti.” he added. “They should have handed him over to us, and he would not be the bad influence he is to-day.” The Jews had been very fair in their dealings with the Arabs in Palestine, he continued. On the land boards, for example, the majority of the members were Arabs, and the Jews brought no pressure to bear on the Arabs to sell their land. When they bought it they paid three times its value, but, of course, now it was 10 times as valuable. The Jews had been very fair over the whole complex question, he said, and they should not be judged by the actions of a few extremists. These individuals did not represent the Palestinian Jews as a whole. It should not be forgotten that the Jews stood by Britain loyally in the war, whereas the majority of the Arabs were not friendly and had to be pacified. . Britain cannot be expected to stand alone over Palestine,” Dr Sale-Harri-son stated. “She and America must act together. After all, there is a big Jewish population in the United States —over 2.000.000 in New York alone. America is just as vitally concerned over the Jewish problem as Britain. If the two countries act together, then the Arabs will not fight. It is time we called their bluff.” •