The Palestine High Commissioner, Sir Arthur Grenfell Wauchope, today informed an Arab delegation that it was not possible to grant their demands for the prohibition of the sale of land to Jews and the stoppage of Jewish immigration to Palestine, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency learns.
The High Commissioner, it is understood, gave a cold reception to the delegation, which was appointed by a conference of sixty Arabs from various parts of the country which had been summoned by the Arab Executive, for the sole purpose of combatting Jewish influence in Palestine.
Sir Arthur in his reply to the Arab delegation declared, it is reported: “What you people ask is impossible. We cannot prohibit the purchase of land by Jews. Sim##arly the government is not inclined to close the country to Jewish immigration as long as there is a demand for labor.”
The delegation quoted the Shaw and Simpson reports and their references to the landless Arabs, to which the High Commissioner allegedly replied that the landless Arabs constitute a problem which the Palestine government is making an effort to solve; but this does not mean precluding the purchase of land by Jews.
After receiving the report of the delegation on the High Commissioner’s attitude toward their demands, the conference resolved upon a policy of non-co-operation with the Palestine government, following the Indian example. Invitations to social gatherings arranged by Government Departments are also to be boycotted.
It had at first been decided to call a general strike for March 5th, but this was deemed insufficient after the report of the delegation and the non-co-operation policy was decided upon.
Originally it had been planned that the entire membership of the conference should march in a body to the High Commissioner to present their demands. This was not carried out because of a disagreement among the delegates on the question of the sale of land to Jews.
A proposal was also submitted calling for legal action against the Palestine government to be entered before the High Court, for the purpose of obtaining legal prohibition of Jewish immigration to the country.
A second Arab conference is to be called for March 26th for the purpose of drawing up the program of non-co-operation.
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