The failure of the British Government and State Department to take steps to carry out the recommendation of the Anglo-American inquiry committee that 100,000 Jews be admitted to Palestine immediately was scored in Congress today by several Senators.
Sen. James Tunnell, Democrat of Delaware, told the Senate that if the British Government had no intention of permitting these 100,000 Jews to go to Palestine, it should immediately issue a clear-cut statement to that effect “so that there might not be false hopes aroused and promises impossible of fulfillment made. If because of its Arab interests it cannot do justice to the Jewish people, it should surrender its mandate,” he said.
Sen. Robert A. Taft, Republican of Ohio, reviewed the actions of the United States and British Governments with regard to Jewish immigration into Palestine, and said he thought there was no military problem whatever involved since “the British have many thousand of troops in Palestine.” He scored the State Department for “promoting further delay” by asking further arguments from interested parties.
Sen. Robert F. Wagner, Democrat of New York, said he was “most concerned about whatever future attempts will be made somewhere along the line in our Department of State again to minimize and to whittle down the import of President Truman’s stand and thus to postpone the actual entry of the 100,000 Jews into Palestine.”
Sen. Claude Pepper, Democrat of Florida, told of his trip to Palestine last year and said he returned “completely convinced” that the charge that 100,000 immigrants could not be absorbed by the Palestine economy was “totally unfounded in fact.” He suggested that the Palestine Mandate be given to the United Nations trusteeship since the Arab states are members and would then feel that they will have some say in its administration.
Short statements endorsing the inquiry committee’s recommendation were also read by Senators James Msad of New York, Kenneth Wherry of Nebraska, Edwin Johnson of Colorado, Joseph Guffey of Pennsylvania, David Walsh of Massachusetts, Homer Ferguson of Michigan and James Huffman of Ohio, They also charged the State Department with causing further delay by asking for opinions on the recommendations of the committee and scored the British Government for conditioning the immigration of the 100,000 on disbandment of the Haganah.
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