The British Government has decided to announce its final plan for settlement of the Palestine problem if indications of an agreement with the Arabs and Jews are not forthcoming within a week, it was learned today after a Cabinet session. Simultaneously, War Secretary Leslie Hore Belisha announced in the House of Commons that provisions would be made for stationing sixteen battalions of troops in the Holy Land, where the military concentration has already reached its post-war peak.
The two developments indicated that the Government had all but lost hope of any amicable agreement arising from the month-old Palestine conference and was determined to carry out its own solution. The proposals to be announced by the Government in the event the one-week deadline passes without indications of agreement will be final and will be subject to modification only in detail, not in principle, it was learned.
The Government’s view is that after four weeks of discussions it is now able to review the situation and the prospects and draw up what it considers a possible settlement in the light of Arab and Jewish reactions to the suggestions, advanced ten days ago, for an independent Palestine state in which the Jews would have a minority status. The British representatives at the conference are working out final proposals and this week the Arab and Jewish delegations will be asked to decide within a short time on whether they wish to accept the plan.
The Government’s conviction that there was virtually no hope of settlement by agreement was strengthened after a round-table session of British, Jews and representatives of three Arab states which ended last midnight at the St. James Palace with official circles admitting that little progress had been made. The meeting was informal in character, as had been the two similar sessions last month, and was confined to general aspects of the situation and a review of the background of the Arab and Jewish cases.
No formal sessions will be held for the present. The British representatives are informally contacting the Arabs and will contact the Jews after receipt of the letter from the Jewish Agency Executive asking clarification of the Government’s intentions regarding the Jewish homeland, which was sent to Colonial Secretary Malcolm MacDonald tonight.
Meanwhile, Robert Szold and Louis Lipsky, the remaining American Zionist representatives at the conference, sailed today for New York on the liner Ile de France after a conversation by overseas telephone with Dr. Solomon Goldman, president of the Zionist Organization of America.
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