British Board of Jewish Deputies Says Gov’t Palestine Plan Contrary to Mandate

“It looks very strongly as if the government is trying to upset the Mandate and the Balfour Declaration by roundabout methods,” Lord Rothschild, to whom the Balfour Declaration was addressed, said at today’s meeting of the Board of Deputies of British Jews of which he is vice-president.

The Board adopted a unanimous resolution recording its profound conviction that the policy outlined in the government’s White Paper on Pales-

tine is contrary to the spirit of the Mandate and the public pledges made by successive British governments. The Board’s resolution welcomes the pronouncements of leading statesmen from the Conservative Party as well as from Lloyd George and General Smuts to the same effect.

The Palestine committee of the Board was instructed to submit to a special meeting of the Board to be convened shortly criticism of the Simpson report and the White Paper. The committee is also empowered meanwhile to take any necessary action.

Col. Robert Waley Cohen told the Board that the White Paper on Palestine was the greatest folly of any British government since Great Britain lost the American colonies.

D’Avigdor Goldsmid, president of the Board, declared that “as British citizens we cannot countenance or support any anti-British agitation. We must remember that we have the closest relations with the British government on many other matters affecting the welfare of the Anglo-Jewish community and we must not forget our other responsibilities when dealing with the present difficult problem.”

Nevertheless the Board’s chief executive pointed out that the Board could associate itself with the “leaders of the great British political parties, Stanley Baldwin, Lloyd George and also the great imperialist. General Smuts. I am anxious to make the government realize that we consider the White Paper policy a breach of the pledges of successive governments including its own.”