Independent Commonwealth in Palestine Must Await Participation of U.n.o. Says Barkley

The establishment of an “independent commonwealth” in Palestine must come about as a result of negotiations and treaties among the various nations interested, with the cooperation of the United Nations Organization, Sen. Alben Barkley, Senate majority leader, tonight told the closing session of the Jewish National Fund conference here.

Sen. Barkley said that the immediate problem is the one of rescuing hundreds of thousands of Jews, and he expressed the belief that “the deep-seated sense of justice of the American and British people will ultimately prevail over any superficial reasons that may be advanced against this humanitarian movement.” Commenting on the recent passage by the Senate of the Palestine resolution, he said that “of course, we realize that this resolution does not have the force of law, but it constitutes an overwhelming expression of the feelings of the American people.”

In a series of resolutions the conference called on the Zionist Emergency Council not to participate in the hearings of the Anglo-American inquiry committee, voiced full support of the plan of Dr. Abraham Granovsky, head of the JNF in Jerusalem, for the purchase of over 500,000 dunams (125,000 acres) of land in the near future at a cost of $40,000,000, and promised the Palestine Jewish community that American Jewry will continue its fight to secure for Jews access to all parts of Palestine.

The conference urged the American Zionist Emergency Council to send delegations to the United States and British governments to demand withdrawal of the discriminatory land regulations. It voted support of the $100,000,000 campaign of the United Jewish Appeal, and, at the same time, called for continued JNF traditional collections and urged the investment of Jewish communal funds with the JNF.

Speakers included Judge Morris Rothenberg, Louis Lipsky, Dr. Granovsky, Leon Gellman, and other Zionist leaders.