Friday, February 8, 1946

Palestine Inquiry Hearings
ift to European Centers

Anglo-American Committee Ends Session in London; Plan
Full Report From Vienna After Separate Inquiries
in Germany, Austria, Hungary

By GEROLD FRANK

(Special Jewish Telegraphic Agency Correspondent)

LONDON, (JTA)—The Anglo-American inquiry committee,
which ended its hearings here this week, will issue an interim re-
port from Vienna around the end of next month.
The report will be drafted when the members reassemble in
Vienna after their separate investigations in Germany, Austria,
Czechoslovakia and Hungary. It will not contain any recommenda-
tions concerning Palestine, but will outline the requirements of the
displaced and other Jews in Europe, and, probably, suggest places
of emigration aside from Palestine.
It is reported, however, that the committee has encountered
little success in exploratory investigations on non-Palestinian
havens for Jews. Britain, Canada, the U. S. and Australia, all of
which are understood to have been sounded out ,indicated that to-
gether they. would not admit more than 30,000 immigrants.
After its visit to Palestine—and a possible side visit by some
of the members to Saudi. Arabia to confer with Ibn Saud—the
committee will leave for Switzerland in April. Its report will be
drafted at Lausanne.

THE JEWISH NEWS

`

Weekly Review of the News of the World

(Compiled from Cables of Independent Jewish Press Service)

AMERICA

PALESTINE

Official action will be taken by the City of
New York to deny the privileges of tax exemp-
tion to educational institutions which discrim-
inate against minority groups. Assurances that
Mayor O'Dwyer will 'take such action were
given by Paul L. Ross, administrative secre-
tary to the mayor, in a speech before the
Brooklyn Womens' Division of the American
Jewish Congress.
The proposal to establish a state university
in New York as a means of offsetting the wide-
spread racial and religious discrimination in
private colleges in New York and elsewhere,
will not be acted upon in the State Legislature
this year. This course was clearly indicated by
the Republican leaders, who constitute the ma-
jority in the State legislature.

All work, business and traffic in Jewish Pal-
estine halted for three hours Jan. 31, as hun-
dreds of thousands of Jews, from Dan to
Beersheba, gathered in orderly demonstrations
to demand the immediate opening of Palestine
to all Jews who wish to enter, and to reiterate
their desire for friendship and cooperation with
Arabs in Palestine and neighboring countries
Resolutions adopted in every Jewish commun-
ity expressed Jewish Palestine's resolve not to
remain silent or to rest until the White Paper
restrictions are repealed.
Nine hundred ten "illegal" Jewish immi-
grants, including ninety-three children, held in
Athlith detention camp since their arrival Jan.
17, aboard the motor vessel Enzo Sereni, were •
released in separate groups, beginning Feb. 3.
(SEE ALSO PAGE 18)

Resume of Week's Hearings in London

LONDON—(JPS).—In a seemingly endless flood of testimony,
over a score of Jews and non-Jews, including high goVernment
officials, Members of Parliament, military officers and representa-
tives of political and religious organizations, presented before the
Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry here the cases for and
against creation of a Jewish State in Palestine.
Highlighting the Jewish case was the testimony of Viscount
Herbert . Samuel, Palestine's first High Commissioner, who. urged
the admission of 50;000 Jews into Palestine annually, at least tem-
porarily under UNO control; the testimony of Sir Simon Marks,
speaking on behalf of the Zionist Federation of Britain; and of Dr.
Selig Brodetsky, testifying on behalf of the Board of Deputies of
British Jews; the latter two of whom recommended a Jewish State
in Palestine as part of the British Commonwealth.
Viscount Samuel told the Committee that an annual increase in
Palestine of 100,000 Jews and Arabs would not be excessive. He
proposed that the JewiSh Agency function in an advisory capacity in
regard to immigration, under direct control of UNO. He suggested
autonomous local administration along communal lines.
Favor Mandate Continued in British Hands
Sir Simon Marks said that while British Jews deplore the present
government policy in Palestine, it is their unanimous desire that
the Mandate continue to be entrusted to Britain, if it is aimed more
constructively towards the fulfillment of the Palestine Declaration.
Prof. Brodetsky urged that 1,000,000 Jews be admitted into
Palestine during the next ten years, in order to insure the minimum
numerical majority, which, he said, is pre-requisite to the estab-
lishment of a Jewish State.
The most concrete proposals for a solution of the Palestine prob-
lem were offered by Sir Hubert Young, head of the Middle East
Department of the Colonial Office; and Leopold S. Amery, former
Colonial Secretary and co-author of the Balfour Declaration.
Amery recommended a partition of Palestine into separate
Jewish and Arab States, the former including the costal strip
and the Negev and the latter embracing Western Galilee, the
Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea. Pointing out that he, himself
had framed the Balfour Declaration, he told the Committee that
its original aim was the establishment of a Jewish State in
Palestine, and that under the Declaration, Transjordan was an in-
tegral part of Palestine. He scored the White Paper policy as a
breach of faith leading to the progressive deterioration of the
situation in Palestine.
Sir Hubert, speaking for the Colonial Office, proposed a flexible
partition of Palestine into autonomous Jewish and Arab regions,
undivided by strategic frontiers and under a common central gov-
ernment, the nature of which he did not specify. Under this sys-
tem Jewish and Arab communities would be free to expand any-
where within Palestine's borders.
Determined to Settle in Palestine
Leonard Montefiore, a grandson of Sir Moses Montefiore, who
in 1838 negotiated with Ali Pasha, of Egypt, for Jewish colonization
in Palestine, told the Committee that under any conditions the dis-
placed Jews of Europe are determined to settle in Palestine. He tes-
tified on behalf of the Jewish Colonization Association.
Dr. James Parkes, writer and authority on the Middle East, tes-
tifying voluntarily, urged the establishment of a Jewish State. "If
Palestine is made an Arab State, - he said, "there will be thousands
of Jewish suicides all over the world." .
Rabbi Leo Baeck, former Chief Rabbi of Germany, who
survived two years in Theresienstadt Ghetto, made a moving
plea for the admission of Europe's homeless Jews in Palestine.
Ivan Grunberg and Sally Teff, members of the Dominion
League, recommended dominion status for Palestine.
Sydney Silverman, Labor MP, testified on behalf of the World
Jewish congress. Harry Goodman spoke for Agudath Israel and
Rabbi Unterman testified on behalf of the Mizrachi of Britain.
Protagonist for the Arab Cause
Anti-Zionist testimony was led off by Major-General Sir Ed-
. ward Spears, long a protagonist for the Arab cause, who alleged that
Zionism savours of the Nazi "herrenvolk" (ruling class) theory, and
that the Jews of Palestine were "unloyal" to the British Empire,
while the Arabs contributed much to the war effort. He was im-
mediately rebuked for the former statement by American member
James MacDonald, and thereupon modified his remarks. When
American member Buxton cited relative enlistment figures of Pal-
estine Jews an ,,.Arabs in British armed forces, Spears was forced
to concede that Jews did their part. The anti-Zionist case was car-
ried further by Maude Royden, woman preacher and social worker,
. who, while professing sympathy for the plight of European Jewry,
insisted that White Paper restrictions be maintained in Palestine
in fairness to the Arab people. Another anti-Zionist, Thomas Reid,
Labor MP, told the Committee that a government is not always
bound by its pre-election Party pledges.
Colonel Louis Gluckstein, Sir Brunel Cohen and Basil Henri-
ques, testifying for the Arrg;lo-Jewish Fellowship, British counter-
part of the anti-Zionist American Coun-cil for Judaism, conceded
that the majority of Jews in Europe want to emigrate to Palestine,
but contended that this desire was due solely to their unstable
. mental condition caused by years of suffering.

British Communists Favor Independent Palestine
LONDON (WNS)—A memorandum expressing regret at the
British government's failure to implement the White Paper's
pledge to make Palestine independent was submitted to the Anglo-
American inquiry committee by Philip Piratin, Communist MP.
• The memorandum urged independence for Palestine at an early
date and a Jewish national home there without increasing the
•Jewish population of about 600.000.
Appearing as the last witness. Piratin said that many Jews
would want to remain in Europe when conditions are normal again.

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MOSCOW (WNS)—There are no "legal foundations" for the
Anglo-American action in naming a fact-finding commission on
-Palestine without first consulting the United Nations, it was
• charged here editorially by. the New . Times, which said that "the
problem of Palestine has acquired such a sharp character" be-
- cause it reflects the difference Of interests between England and
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