Britain to Announce Partition Plan for Palestine on Nov. 16, London Hears

The Colonial Office today told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that it has no comment to make on an announcement made here last night that a provisional partition plan for Palestine, establishing separate Jewish and Arab states, will be made public by the British Government on November 16.

The announcement was made by Abraham Abrahams, a leader of the New Zionist Organization, who stated that his disclosure was based on “very reliable information.” Speaking at a press conference, he said that the proposed Jewish State will occupy the area allotted to Jews by the partition plan of 1937, with the exception that a larger part of Galilee will be included in the Jewish section. (The 1937 plan provided for a Jewish state occupying roughly the northern one-third of the region between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean, with a narrow extension southwards along the coast, taking in about three-fourths of the country’s seaboard. The entire area would have been about seven times as large as New York City.)

Under the new proposal, the NZO leader asserted, Haifa remains under British control, Jerusalem under an international trusteeship, with the remaining area of Palestine plus Transjordan becoming an Arab state eventually.

Abrahams charged that spokesmen for the Jewish Agency have given the British authorities the impression that partition would be acceptable, although under protest, on condition that a Jewish Commonwealth was established. He urged that all Jewish groups, including the Agudas Israel, the Anglo-Jewish Association, the regular Zionist organizations, the NZO, and others, issue a joint statement protesting the partition scheme.

JEWISH AGENCY WATCHES SITUATION; DEFINITELY OPPOSED TO PARTITION

A spokesman for the Jewish Agency, commenting on the report of a new partition plan, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that “the situation is being carefully watched.” He emphasized that the Jewish Agency is definitely against any partition of Palestine.

“Rumors regarding a forthcoming partition scheme for Palestine have been circulated for some time,” he declared. “The opposition of the Jewish Agency to partition has been expressed repeatedly and conveyed to the British Government. The situation is being carefully watched. Any allegation that the Jewish Agency, or any of its leaders, explicitly or implicitly assented to partition is a malicious invention.”

The Zionist Review, official organ of the British Zionist Federation, tomorrow will carry an editorial warning against the danger of partition and stressing that the Jewish Agency has officially informed the Government that it opposes partition. The editorial will emphasize that the Agency told the British authorities that the Biltmore Declaration, to which it adheres, calls for a Jewish Commonwealth in an undivided Palestine. “Zionists may be sure that the Agency is standing guard and is watching the interests of the Jewish people in accordance with the decisions of the highest bodies of the movement,” says the Review.