UPA Parley Appeals to U.S. to Intervene with Britain for Abolishment of White Paper

The government of the United States was appealed to today "to make representations to Great Britain to annul forwith the White Paper of 1939 and to ask assurances that Jewish immigration into Palestine shall not be abridged nor shall the purchase of land by Jews be restricted," in a resolution adopted here at the closing of the two-day National Conference for Palestine called by the United Palestine Appeal. The resolution condemned the White Paper as an illegal document which would "liquidate the Palestine mandate and terminate the growth of the Jewish National Home."

Another resolution adopted by the 1,450 delegates expressed deep disappointment at the failure of the Bermuda Refugee Conference "to give adequate consideration to the desperate plight of the Jews under the heel of Hitlerism and to include within its recommendations the immediate possibilities of large-scale mass immigration into Palestine." A special resolution paid tribute to Dr. Abba Hillel Silver, national president of the UPA, who was elected to that post for the fifth time.

WEIZMANN SAYS "JEWS WILL NEVER ACCEPT WHITE PAPER"

Dr. Chaim Weizmann, president of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, told the conference that "Jews will never accept the White Paper as the last word in British statesmanship." He added that "we shall not permit our last hopes to be smothered, nor shall we be intimidated by threats of revolt." Referring to the refugee problem, Dr. Weizmann said: "Whenever the refugee situation is discussed and the possibilities of Palestine considered, someone always introduces a treacherous ‘but’ to keep the doors closed to our last hope – our only hope. We are too weary, our suffering is too great to be satisfied with mere palliatives. We want instead a generous understanding and a will to action."

Dr. Stephen S. Wise compared the White Paper to the Munich agreement and stated that "as the Munich pact was destroyed, so shall the White Paper be destroyed." Other speakers at today’s sessions included Dr. Abba Hillel Silver, Frank Gannet, publisher; Bernard Rosenblatt of the Palestine Foundation Fund; Dr. Israel Goldstein, Rabbi Meir Berlin, Judge Morris Rothenberg, Judge Louis E. Levinthal and others.

JEWISH HOMELAND "TABOO" IN WASHINGTON, SILVER CHARGES

In the keynote address of the conference, delivered last night, Dr. Silver stated that the whole subject of a Jewish homeland in Palestine "has suddenly become taboo" in Washington. "The President of the United States sent an official greeting to the United Jewish Appeal this year which quite pointedly, and not by accident, omits any mention whatsoever of Palestine," he said. "Our former friends in government circles content themselves with sending us prolific expressions of sympathies on Jewish persecution. When pressed to do something about it, they regretfully remind us how difficult it is to do anything for these unfortunate people under present war conditions. The suggestion is even made that anything which may be done for

Other resolutions adopted by the conference pledged the UPA’s continued support of the war effort, protested the refusal of the British Government to allow the formation of a Jewish Army in Palestine, greeted the Yishuv for its "mighty contributions to the cause of the United Nations" and promised the Jews in Palestine to continue the fight for the creation of a Jewish Commonwealth there.