British Zionists Warned of “serious and Tragic” Decisions; Goldmann Says Jews Isolated

British Zionists may be obliged to take “serious and tragic decisions” when Britain finally offers its solution of the Palestine problem, Dr. Nahum Goldmann warned today. Delivering the keynotes address, in place of Dr. Weizman, at the 45th annual convention of the British Zionist Federation, he said.

“I do not say that we will get 100 percent of what we want; we will have to make a reasonable compromise, but whatever the solution will be, it must be a solution whereby we continue to build and to grow, and much faster than in the last 25 years, We are isolated and must depend primarily upon our own strength, but the power of the Yishuv will not be easily brushed aside and if this is attempted, there will be trouble and bloodshed.”

Stating that “I have not given up the hope of building up Palestine to gather with Britain,” Goldmann asserted that Britain had emerged from the war with her international position endangered and that she would not easily discount the threats of the Arabs, who, he pointed out, “for a decade blackmailed her by threatening to join Hitler, and are now blackmailing her by threatening to join Stalin.”

Prof. Selig Brodetsky, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, declared that there is need for an inquiry into whether Great Britain has carried out her obligations under the Palestine Mandate, but stressed that the present inquiry commission is a deliberate attempt to reduce the Jewish question to a refugee problem alone, “This,” he said, “we have never accepted, and never will.”

The conference adopted a resolution expressing apprehension at the granting of independence to Transjordan, and calling upon the Zionist executive to take steps on an international scale and vis-a-vis the British Government to defend the status of Jews under the Palestine Mandate. Another resolution reiterated the Zionist demands for a Jewish Commonwealth and free immigration.