Chamberlain Voices Peace Hope As Palestine Parleys Open; Arab Rift Snags Talks

Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain today launched the Palestine conference by urging Arab and Jewish delegations at separate meetings to seek peace through “understanding” and “personal contact” and receiving promises of cooperation from both sides, but before the parallel negotiations on which Britain bases its last hope for an amicable agreement had gotten under way the first snag was struck on the Arab end.

Having failed so far to bring Palestine Arab extremists and moderates together, the Government was obliged to postpone this afternoon’s session with the Arabs, which was scheduled to begin the discussions, and to announce that the conversations would instead open with a session tomorrow evening with the Jewish delegation.

The apparent inability of the dominant group, the followers of Haj Amin el Husseini, ex-Mufti of Jerusalem, to come together with the representatives of the Nashashibi moderates, the Arab National Defense Party, created a strong impression in London. The Daily Telegraph declared editorially: “The fierce rivalry between the Nashashibiste and the Husseinis gives little warrant for imagining that even were the Jews not considered — as is impossible — Palestine could readily form an independent state.”

The Nashashibi group was absent when the Husseini faction and the representatives of five Arab states — Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Transjordan and Yemen — gathered at 10:30 o’ clock in the magnificent Picture Gallery of the St. James Palace to hear the Prime Minister urge the putting of “our united powers” to the admittedly difficult task of breaking the Arab-Jewish deadlock by compromise. (Text of Mr. Chamberlain’s speech on another page.) Prince Abdul Moneim of Egypt replied for the Arabs by expressing the hope for a “solution which will be decisive as well as just.”

After the Arabs had filed out, the Jews entered through a different door at noon to hear Mr. Chamberlain repeat his plea for cooperation. In his speech to the Jews, the Prime Minister used a Hebrew term, saying: “Sholom (peace) is our watchword in Palestine. I sincerely hope that the discussions which you and your colleagues will be conducting with the representatives also will contribute to the achievements of the same object.” Replies which stressed the Jews’ readiness to cooperate where made by Dr. Chaim Weizmann, president of the Jewish Agency; Dr. Stephen S. Wise, for the American Zionists; Isaac Ben-Zvi, president of the Jewish National Council of Palestine, for Palestine Jewry, and Lord Reading for the non-Zionists.

Dr. Weizmann pointed out that the conference was being held in the same room in which the League of Nations Council had approved the Palestine mandate. He asserted that the Jewish aspiration had always been for a peace in Palestine “compatible with the maintenance of our fundamental rights.” He said: “We meet you at a dark hour in our history. It is no exaggeration to say that the hopes and prayers of millions of Jews scattered throughout the world are centered with unshaken confidence in British good faith and on these deliberations. We believe that all our work in Palestine has been the result of grim necessity in the face of realities. I would submit that no reality today is more bitter than that which the Jewish people are called on to face. We have endeavored through all these difficult years to maintain that cooperation with the British Government which has always been the cornerstone of our policy and we are approaching our present task in the same spirit.”

Dr. Wise reminded Mr. Chamberlain of “the historic relation of my country to the policy embodied in the Balfour Declaration and the mandate, which are supported by the American people.” Mr. Ben-Zvi promised that Palestine Jewry would do its utmost to preserve peace and justice in the Holy Land. Lord Reading declared that although the non-Zionists’ approach to the problem was different, “at the same time we are deeply concerned, in the present state of world affairs, with the urgent and vital need to restore peace in Palestine.

Portraits of former monarchs gazed down on the colorful scene in the great gallery of the ancient abode of kings. The Prime Minister stood at a table drawn across the open end of a huge horseshoe, around which first sat the Arabs, many of them in flowing robes of white and gold, and then the Jews, in markedly contrasting Western attire. At the right of the Prime Minister sat Foreign Secretary Viscount Halifax and at the left, two young men who together have to bear the brunt of the conference’s labors — Colonial Secretary Malcolm MacDonald and Foreign Under-secretary Richard A. Butler. The actual discussions will be held in the more intimate confines of smaller rooms, off the Picture Gallery. A handsome tapestried chamber has been assigned to Mr. MacDonald. The delegates will be able to confer privately in the Armory, a medieval chamber whose walls bear hundreds of ancient pistols, blunderbusses, swords, daggers and pieces of armor. The discussions with Jews and Arabs will not be held simultaneously. Mr. MacDonald and Mr. Butler will be present at every session, with Mr. Chamberlain available whenever his presence is deemed necessary.

Immediately after the end of the ceremony, the Jewish delegation centered its attention on the preparation of its case, which Dr. Weizmann will present in a lengthy exposition at tomorrow evening’s opening session. The Jewish Agency had intended to advance no proposals, on the ground that the Jews had already made every conceivable concession, but the Agency was notified officially that all delegations were expected to put forth proposals. The Jewish Agency, accordingly, drafted proposals which are to be edited finally tomorrow.

The Jewish Agency informed the J.T.A. that it was not officially aware of any proposals on the Arab side since the Arabs did not wish to face the Jews directly, across the table, and added that it was not prepared to negotiate on any proposals which would endanger Jewish rights.

The Arabs discussed various proposals. The one most favored among the Arabs was to unite Palestine, Transjordan and Syria into a federated Arab state under a League of Nations mandate which would represent a modification of the British mandate over Palestine and Transjordan and the French mandate over Syria. Certain British circles believe that such a scheme might provide for Jewish immigration into Transjordan and Syria in return for yielding of the Jewish claim in Palestine, but most of the Arab delegates adamantly insist on complete stoppage of Jewish entry, even to the Holy Land.

An unknown quantity in the situation — which may turn out to be the most important factor, in view of the little likelihood of an agreement — is the Government’s intentions if the discussions should fail. Some newspapers here predict the institution of a “Canada-like provincial autonomy system” in Palestine in that event.