A severe attack on British policy in Palestine was made this evening at the Peace Conference by Soviet delegate Nicolai Novikov who opposed a British proposal to insert a clause in the Bulgarian treaty designed to protect Jewish rights.
The British proposal was adopted by seven votes to five with Czechoslovakia abstaining. Voting for the clause were the United States, Australia, Britain, Greece, India, New Zealand and South America. Voting against it were: Russia, White Russia, Ukraine, France and Yugoslavia.
The Hungarian and Rumanian political and territorial committees have already voted in favor of a similar British proposal, over the objection of Russia.
Accusing Britain of using the Peace Conference to divert attention from the situation in Palestine, Novikov, who spoke at the Bulgarian Committee, said:
“How can we pretend the British motives are really sincere? I should like to remind Britain of a certain situation in another part of the world. Almost daily reports appear in the press of arrests, murders, killings and bombings in Palestine, which is under British rule. It seems it is quite clear that what the British delegate has in mind is the Jewish population in Palestine rather than the Jewish population in Bulgaria.
“The Peace Conference should not be made an instrument to correct the mistakes of the British in Palestine. The British representative is trying to pass the trouble from a sick bed to a healthy one. It is quite clear he has in mind a motive which he does not want to express here. Perhaps he wants to use this committee as a lightning rod to divert attention from some of his government’s actions in Palestine.”
Novikov accused Gladwyn Jebb, the British delegate, who had just spoken in favor of the proposal, of having a “sinister and misplaced sense of humor” Jebb replied: “Our only motive in this matter is to help the unfortunate Jews and give them some additional safeguard. It is to quiet the apprehensions–to some extent the legitimate apprehensions–of the Jews in these countries that we have submitted this article.”
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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.
