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Jewish Parliamentarians of 4 Nations, in Memo to Passfield, Express Hope Britain Will Act to Secure

August 5, 1930
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A memorandum pointing out that the Jewish National Home forms the central part of the Palestine Mandate and expressing hope and confidence that the British government will take action to secure the establishment of the Jewish National Home was submitted today to Lord Passfield, British colonial secretary, by the Jewish delegates to the conference of the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

The memorandum is signed by Congressman Sol Bloom of the United States; Henry Rosmarin, a member of the Polish sejm; Dr. M. Nurock, a deputy of the Latvian parliament, and Morris Kentridge, a labor member of the South African parliament.

Explaining that they represented at the conference countries containing 8,000,000 Jews, more than half of the Jews in the whole world, the four Jewish parliamentarians, declared that they “desire to take this opportunity to acquaint you with the views taken by world Jewry in the present Palestine situation.”

JEWS ASKED MANDATE FOR BRITAIN

The memorandum recalls that “in 1919 world Jewry unanimously asked that the Palestine Mandate be entrusted to Great Britain and in America a mass petition signed by half a million Jews also asked it. Confidence in Great Britain was based on her past attitude towards the Jewish people and the interest, which even long before the Balfour Declaration, Great Britain showed in the age-long Jewish idea of returning to Zion.

“By the Balfour Declaration this feeling of confidence was changed into enthusiasm and gratitude. We regret that recent events have seriously shaken the confidence of the Jews of our countries in Great Britain. The August disturbances came as a great blow because we never thought such incidents possible under the British flag. Least of all did we expect the disarmament of Jews by Britishers when they tried to defend their families from violence and murder.

NOT REASSURED ABOUT PALESTINE

“Even now we do not feel reassured regarding the Palestine position. The police continue as a predominately Arab body and no steps have been taken to raise the Jewish contingent while no effective arms have been supplied for the self-defense of the ex-

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