Agency Leaders in London Conferring with Jerusalem, New York on Invitation

A Jewish Agency spokesman here said today that the Agency’s London office was conferring with Zionist leaders in Palestine and the United States concerning the British request for a statement of views on the Palestine committee’s recommendations.

“Whatever may be the attitude of the Agency on the other recommendations of the committee,” the spokesman said, “its views concerning the urgent recommendation for the admission of 100,000 Jews is well known to His Majesty’s Government Under these circumstances further postponement of a decision on this point can hardly be justified and will only lead to additional hardship and exacerbation of feelings.”

(Reuters reports from Jerusalem that Mussa el Alami, an influential member of the Arab Higher Committee, is en route to London to act as a liaison man between the committee and the Colonial Office in connection with talks which may develop around the inquiry committee’s recommendations. The report says that Alami has conferred with the ex-Mufti of Jerusalem in Paris.)

BRITISH MEMBER OF INQUIRY COMMITTEE HITS DELAY IN IMPLEMENTING REPORT

Speaking here today to a meeting of the Anglo-Jewish Association, Richard Crossman, a British member of the inquiry committee and a Labor M.P., appealed to both Jews and Englishmen to do their utmost to avoid an “Anglo-Jewish war.” Crossman said he was disappointed at the prolonged discussions that followed publication of the committee’s report.

Ridiculing the idea that the British members of the committee “gave in” to the Americans in the writing of the report, Crossman said: “I signed because I believed it is a good report and the best short-term policy. American support or non-support cannot determine the approach to a problem where one has to ask oneself whether justice or injustice will be done. The same goes for the Arab objections or non-objections. The committee excluded outside expediency from its deliberations,” he asserted.

Crossman declared that the economic absorption of 100,000 immigrants was relatively simple and added that the “old bugbear of absorptivity is outdated, but still the Arabs object to the entrance of a single Jew.” After studying the lessons of the Arab revolt resulting from the White Paper, he continued, the Palestine Jewish community transformed itself into a sort of a “Marquis” group.

Such a position, he warned, was dangerous to Jews and Britons alike, with the country drifting toward imminent civil war. The situation has become more tense with the delay in implementing the inquiry committee report and the endurance of the Jews is being put to a protracted test, Crossman told the meeting. He added: “I am convinced that if the Government abolishes the White Paper and admits the 100,000 to Palestine, the Jews will become again absolutely loyal.” He concluded by urging that Britain alone carry out the inquiry committee’s proposals, but asked that she be backed by American and the United Nations.

Major Reginald Manningham-Bullar, another member of the inquiry committee, today expressed “regrets” at the statements made by various American members of the committee concerning the deliberations of the group prior to issuance of the report.

Assenting, in a letter to the London Times, that “although I am not a supporter of the Government, I would hesitate to make a public statement which might add to their difficulties, “Major Manningham-Buller said that his silence should not be misconstrued as acceptance of the accuracy of the published accounts of discussions, agreements, and interpretation arrived at by the twelve members of the inquiry body.

A group of prominent British statesmen, led by Leopold S. Amery, Viscount Cecil, and Sir Archibald Sinclair, today issued a joint statement in the Times calling on the Government to announce its immediate readiness to admit 100,000 displaced Jews to Palestine, Stressing that the decision should not be contingent upon any conditions, they pointed out that a grave situation might develop from any delay in implementing the immigration proposal of the Anglo-American committee. The statement said that prolong of the mental and physical distress of the refugees would encourage violence.