Jewish delegates and representatives of Arab states will meet face to face tomorrow morning for the first time in the two-week-old Palestine conferences, it was announced today.
An informal meeting for general discussion will be attended by Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax and Colonial Secretary Malcolm MacDonald, representing Britain; Dr. Chaim Weizmann, representing the Jews, and delegates from Iraq, Egypt and possibly also Saudi Arabia. No Palestine Arab representatives will be present.
The meeting was described — in the words of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s speech to the opening session of the conferences — as an attempt to solve the problem by “personal contact.” It was stated, however, that the Arabs’ attendance does not imply recognition of the Jewish Agency.
Earlier, the British Cabinet was understood to have authorized Mr. MacDonald to make concrete proposals to the Jews involving restriction of Jewish immigration to the Holy Land. (The Associated Press reported that Mr. MacDonald had told the Cabinet that the conferences were virtually over and that the rival delegations were beyond reconciliation.)
This morning Dr. Weizmann and David Ben Gurion called on Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax and Mr. MacDonald at the Colonial Office. Dr. Stephen S. Wise and the Rev. Maurice Perlzweig, of the British Jewish delegation, were scheduled to confer this evening with Foreign Undersecretary Richard A. Butler. The conversations were understood to be aimed at clarification of the situation, the Jews stressing refusal to accept a permanent minority status or to make concessions limiting Jewish rights.
Reports of a breakdown in the Anglo-Jewish part of the triangular conferences on Palestine, circulated following an inconclusive three-hour session Monday night which ended with no date set for a new meeting, were officially denied yesterday. It was understood that Mr. MacDonald and Mr. Butler met with Arab and Jewish delegates yesterday, although no meetings had been formally scheduled, and that the next meeting with the Jews would be held Friday. Official summaries of the British negotiations with both Jews and Arabs to date were issued.
Meanwhile, the Government’s talks with Arabs and Jews entered their third week, having failed so far to disclose any basis for mutual understanding and with the only possible outcome believed to be imposition by the Government of a policy still to be officially revealed. In a fortnight’s arguments and discussions during the conferences and private negotiations behind the scenes, the British representatives have failed to shake Arab insistence on their extremist demands and the British Cabinet is considering this week the fact that the Arab states, which Britain has been so assiduously wooing, have now united in support of the demand for independence. On the questions of restriction of Jewish immigration and land purchases, there is still ground for further discussion between the Arabs and British when the Arab-British talks are resumed.
As far as the British and the Jews are concerned, both sides have now talked themselves out and it is difficult to see what grounds remain for further discussion on the proposals submitted by Colonial Secretary Malcolm MacDonald, which were categorically rejected. The Jews have been steadfast in their demands that the Balfour Declaration, which promised to facilitate establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine, remain in force and in their refusal to accept anything involving a permanent minority status. Between these and the extremist demands lies a wide gap which it is believed Mr. MacDonald will be unable to bridge.
Among the Jews, the conviction has steadily grown that only in direct talks with the Arabs can the differences between both parties ever be resolved. Otherwise there is no course left but for Mr. MacDonald to announce officially what the British intentions are and seek to secure the approval of some Arabs and Jews. Failing this approval, the Government, according to frequently reiterated declarations, must formally announce that it will implement a policy for the future of Palestine. Informed quarters do not believe that the Government has such a program cut and dried and ready for imposition, though the suggestions thrown out by Mr. MacDonald last week — to use the official phrase — are believed to indicate more or less the lines which the Government intends to follow.
There is not much doubt that the Government has embarked upon a policy of placating the Arabs, not so much the Palestine Arabs as the 22,000,000 constituting the five independent states spread over the Near East in a position of vital importance to Britain in time of war. This policy explains in the first place why the Arab states are at the conferences and why there have been so many behind-the-scenes talks with their representatives, and why the possibility of an Arab State being established in Palestine must not be excluded from any speculation on the outcome of the Palestine issue.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
