British Zionists Call for Immediate Transfer of 100,000; Shertok Hits Delay

Declaring that further delay in implementing the inquiry committee’s recommendations would only aggravate the position of the Jews of Europe and increase their sense of despair, 400 delegates attending a special conference of the British Zionist Federation adopted resolutions calling for the immediate transfer of 100,000 Jews to Palestine and the lifting of restrictions on Jewish land purchases there. The conference asserted that the only solution for the Jewish people lay in establishing a Jewish state in Palestine. An amendment advocating setting up a bi-national state in Palestine, which was introduced by Hashmer Hatzair delegates, was defeated.

Stressing that Palestine will not long remain a predominantly Arab country, Moshe Shertok, chief of the political department of the Jewish Agency, told the conference that 100,000 European Jews could be admitted to Palestine without displacing a single Arab. Shertok declared that the Jews in Palestine will not submit to oppression, “By oppression, we mean refusal to permit Jews to enter the country,” he said. At the same time, he emphasized that the Jews have not given up their claim for a Jewish state.

Laborite and Conservative members of both houses of Parliament today united in declaring themselves in favor of Zionist ideals and denouncing the delay in implementing the inquiry committee’s immigration proposal at a luncheon here of the Jewish Dominion League, which advocates the inclusion of Palestine as an autonomous Jewish dominion in the British Empire. Lord Strabolgi, Laborite, who is president of the organization, declared that the Anglo-American committee’s report points directly to a bi-national solution of the Palestine problem within the British dominion framework, and protested the separation of Transjordan from Palestine.