The Anglo-American inquiry committee, which will end its hearings here tomorrow, will issue an interim report in Vienna around the end of next month, it was learned today.
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 recommendations 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 United States and Australia, all of which are understood to have been sounded out, indicated that together they would not admit more than 30,000 immigrants.
After its visit to Palestine–and a possible side visit by some of the member to Saudi Arabia to confer with Ibn Saud–the committee will leave for Switzerland in April. Its report will be drafted at Lausanne.
SAUDI ARABIAN PRINCE EXPECTED TO TESTIFY TODAY
Emir Feisal, son of Ibn Saud, who heads the Saudi Arabian delegation at the UNO, is expected to testify before the committee tomorrow. American co-chairman Judge Joseph Hutcheson told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency today that it was not yet certain that Feisal would appear, but the committee would welcome his testimony. He said that Feisal had expressed a wish to speak on behalf of all the Arab delegations at the UNO.
The principal witnesses at today’s session were former Colonial Secretary Leopold Amery, a three-man delegation representing the anti-Zionist “Jewish Fellowship,” consisting of Rasil Henriques, Major Jack Brunel Cohen and Col. Louis H. Glucksteing and Leonard Stein, president of the Anglo-Jewish Association.
Col. Gluckstein declared that the Board of Deputies of British Jews, whose president, Prof. Selig Brodetsky, appeared last Friday, was not representative of British Jewry, since it had been” captured by a Zionist caucus.” He also attempted to discredit, in advance, the expected pro-Zionist testimony by the displaced persons in Germany by declaring that their present physical and mental condition made them incapable of clear judgment.
He suggested that Jews be offered possibilities for rehabilitation where they are now, while those who decide that they cannot remain in their present abodes should be afforded an opportunity to emigrate to various countries, including Palestine. Col. Gluckstein added that he was opposed to establishment of a Jewish state on the grounds that it would enable anti-Semites in various countries to say to Jews: “Why do you stay here? Go to your own state.”
JUDGE HUTCHESON SAYS HE IS OPPOSED TO JEWISH “SEPARATISM”
Judge Hutcheson thanked Gluckstein for his testimony, stating that it confirmed his won view that separatism was unsound. When Bartley Crum queried Gluckstein on his attitude towards the White Paper, he replied that he had voted for it while a member of the House of Commons. At this point, Henriques interjected that ninety-nine percent of the membership of the Jewish Fellowship wish to see the White Paper scrapped.
James MacDonald challenged Gluckstein’s assertion that the Fellowship spoke for the majority of the Jews in England, and drew form him the admission that the or- ganization had only about 1,500 members. The latter insisted, however, that many Jews, including servicemen, shared his views.
MacDonald and Gluckstein clashed again concerning the difference between the terms “Jewish people” and “Jewish nation.” The former High Commissioner for Refugees pointed out that assimilationism had not saved the Jews of Germany, and stressed that various international conferences on refugee problems failed to find possibilities of large-scale emigration outside of Palestine.
COL. AMERY ADVOCATES PALESTINE PARTITION; SAYS JEWS SHOULD GET THE NEGEV
Col. Amery suggested that Palestine be partitioned into separate Jewish and Arab states. The Jewish states, he said, should comprise the coastal plain, except Galilee, but should include Tiberias, Huleh and also the Negev up to the Egyptian frontier. The Arab territory, he said, should cover the area between the Jordan River and the Jewish coastal area, plus the Galilee, except Tiberias and Huleh. The holy places should remain under a mandate or under the trusteeship of the United Nations Organization, he added.
Amery pointed out that if Lebanon can exist as a small Christian state, there is also a possibility for the existence of a small Jewish state. He emphasized that if anything can be done to develop the Negev, the southern desert part of Palestine, it is the Jews who can do it and not the Arabs. He promised to submit to the committee a map outlining his partition proposal. Criticising the White Paper, he said that this document is a complete reversal of the pledges given by the British Government in the Balfour Declaration which he, as secretary of the war cabinet, helped to prepare.
ANGLO-JEWISH ASSOCIATION SAYS PALESTINE IS ONLY PLACE WHERE JEWS CAN GO
Leonard Stein told the committee that Palestine is the only place to where Jews from Europe can go. Queried by Sir John Singleton as to whether he was mistaken in saying that there was no genuine alternative to Palestine, Stein replied “No”. “But why force all homeless Jews on Palestine?” Singleton continued. Stein replied that “it is not fair to ask this question because of the generally accepted fact that Palestine has a distinctive place in the solution of the Jewish problem.”
Citing a number of other reasons to substantiate his views, Stein pointed out that, in addition to the historical and traditional connections between the Jews and Palestine, the Jews themselves have created conditions in Palestine enabling the admission of more immigrants. He also cited the fact that the country was promised to them as their national home. Replying to a question by Judge Hutcheson, Stein said there is at present only the beginning of a Jewish National home in Palestine, but no national home as yet. He emphasized that the White Paper contradicts the Palestine mandate. Stein said that full sovereignty or a dominion status are not the only solutions for the Palestine problem, and pointed to the example of Ceylon where wide autonomy is enjoyed by the local population.
Dr. James Parkes, a well known authority on Jewish affairs, who has written widely on anti-Semitism and means of combatting it, told the committee than an effective remedy for anti-Semitism would be to give the Jews a place where they can be masters in their own house. He did not specify whether this should take the form of a Jewish state or national homeland.
Parkes took issue with yesterday’s statement by Maj. Gen. Edward Spears that Zionism was similar to Nazism in some aspects, declaring that even the Jewish terrorists in Palestine adhered to ethical principles, warning garrisons that were to be bombed to leave their stations.
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.
