Demand for Arab State to Be Aired at Anglo-arab Parley Today

The first Arab demand, for establishment of an independent Arab state, will be discussed at tomorrow morning’s session of the Anglo-Arab conferences on Palestine, it was reliably learned today.

British officials at this morning’s session, were understood to have reiterated the Government’s view that Palestine was excluded from the promises to the Arabs made by Sir Henry MacMahon, wartime British High Commissioner for Egypt, during his correspondence in 1915 with Sherif Hussein of Mecca.

The correspondence, on which the Arabs largely base their claims, was discussed by Ali Maher Pasha of Egypt and the delegates of Trans-Jordan and Yemen and an Anglo-Arab subcommittee was appointed to take up the details of the publication of the correspondence, which was promised yesterday by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain.

At today’s Arab session, discussion of the opening statement made last Thursday for the Palestine Arabs by Jamal el Husseini was concluded.

It is understood that the British delegates tomorrow will maintain that the Arabs cannot claim independence for Palestine on the legal ground that it was promised by MacMahon, since his pledge did not include the area of present Palestine. The immediate subject of tomorrow’s Arab-British talks will be the specific Arab claims rather than the Government’s proposals for a solution of the problem, the British representatives voicing their views as the Arab demands are considered.

The Anglo-Jewish discussions continued tonight with further statements by the Jewish delegates, including Sholem Asch, novelist who is representing East European Jewry at the conferences. Official quarters voiced the hope that discussion of general principles would be concluded early and that the conferences would proceed immediately to discussion of specific problems such as immigration and sale of land. The Government is understood to be ready to make statements on both topics, the nature of which is causing considerable anxiety in Jewish circles. Tonight’s Jewish delegation included Dr. Stephen S. Wise, Lord Reading and Lord Bearsted, with Robert Szold and Mrs. Rose Jacobs among the observers.

TEMPORARY COMPROMISE PLAN REPORTED

A purported six-point temporary compromise solution of the Palestine conflict to be put before Arab and Jewish delegates at the current conferences by the British Government was published today by the Laborite Daily Herald. The solution, the newspaper said, embraces the following features:

1) Palestine to be divided into well-defined Arab and Jewish zones as regards Jewish immigration and sale of land to Jews; 2) in Jewish zones a fixed annual rate of immigration and regulated sales of land: 3) no Jewish immigration or sale of land to Jews in Arab zones; 4) Jewish immigration to be restricted not only by economic considerations, but by political and other factors as well; 5) no independent Arab State; 6) a legislative council for Palestine, with larger participation for Arabs than for Jews.

(Efforts by former High Commissioner Sir Arthur Grinnell Wauchope to establish a legislative council of Jews and Arabs were among factors leading to the 1936 disorders. Both Arabs and Jews were at that time adamant in their opposition to a council and the project was dropped.)

“Owing to the international situation,” the Herald said, “the British Government can only envisage a policy convering a limited number of years. The policy will, therefore, be put forward as a temporary one in the hope that there may be other adjustments as things in Palestine settle down.

“The proposals are, for the present, suggestions from the Government in the hope that both Arabs and Jews will accept them. If not, the policy outlined, subject to discussion and amendment, will become the policy of the Government, which it will enforce in Palestine.

“There is little likelihood of either the Arabs or Jews accepting this obvious compromise solution. Hints of immigration and land sales restrictions have already aroused deep resentment among the Jews, especially in America and Poland.”