British Delay in Admitting 100,000 to Palestine Wavering Jewish Agency’s Influence

Dr. Leo Kohn, political secretary of the Jewish Agency in Jerusalem, who has just arrived in the United States, said yesterday that the influence of the Agency in restraining violence in Palestine has waned because of continuing British delay in admission to Palestine of the 100,000 displaced Jews.

He told a press conference at the Jewish Agency offices here of “the grave concern” with which the Agency views any further delay and predicted that “very serious things including mass suicide” may occur among Jewish refugees in Germany if something is not done soon.

Dr. Kohn emphasized that there is little to fear from the Arabs if the recommendations of the Anglo-American inquiry committee for admission of the 100,000 is carried out. The report from Palestine of a British plan to disarm the Jewish self-defense movement has occasioned deep anxiety, Dr. Kohn said, adding that such action would be inviting the Arabs to make trouble.

Dr. Nahum Goldman, American representative of the Jewish Agency, who participated in the conference, warned that if the British do decide to disarm Jews in Palestine, they “will have to kill over ten thousand Jews.” Unless Britain is ready to organize mass massacres,” Dr. Goldman emphatically stated, “they cannot carry through the disarming. If the only language Mr. Bevin and the Colonial Office understand is one of force and nuisance value, we will have to show them that view.”

Dr. Goldman said that he had conveyed these views to British Ambassador Lord Inverchapel, and had drawn his attention to the “bitter feelings” of American Jewry. “If the British continue their policy,” he said, “it will create a kind of a new Irish problem in the United States, with the Jews occupying the former place of the Irish.”