Mrs. Stephen S. Wise Rejects British Honor Because of Oppression of Palestine Jews

Mrs. Stephen S. Wise disclosed today that she has sent a letter to British Ambassador Lord Inverchapel dealing the honor awarded her this week by the British Government, because of British actions in Palestine.

Mrs. Wise was named an Honorary Member of the Excellent Order of the British Empire because of her management of the servicemen’s centers operated by the Women’s Division of the American Jewish Congress, which gave shelter to tens of thousands of British soldiers and sailors during the war.

“A Mandatory Government,” Mrs. Wise stated, “should act as trustee for the well-being of the people. The British Mandatory Government has not from the beginning borns itself as trustee, and its recent conduct in imprisoning some of the leading members of the Executive of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, its imprisonment of hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of Jewish settlers in Palestine and, above all, the ruthless conduct of its representatives with respect to the Jewish settlement, have so pained me that I cannot with self-respect accept any appointment or distinction from the British Government.”