The News-Chronicle reported today that a plan envisaging a bi-national state in Palestine, in which Arabs and Jews would cooperate on the basis of ultimate numerical and political equality, was being considered by the Jewish Agency and if approved would be submitted to the Government as the Jewish alternative to the British proposal for an Arab-controlled state.
The plan provides chiefly for retention of the mandate, coupled with a new attempt to secure Arab-Jewish cooperation. For a trial period of one year, the Jews would undertake to do everything possible to make the experiment work, including undertaking of development schemes in which the benefits would be shared by the Arabs. Following this period, the Government would establish a legislative assembly with Arab and Jewish representation on a basis of political and numerical equality. This would continue for ten years, during which Jewish immigration would be allowed until numerical equality with the Arabs had been achieved. At the end of the decade, the bi-national state would be set up and would be federated with Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the Transjordan, Yemen and possibly Syria.
The News-Chronicle declared editorially that abandonment by Great Britain of the Balfour Declaration would have most unfortunate results. Breaking of the pledge, the newspaper said, would disastrously affect the prestige of the Colonial Empire, Jewry the world over would be alienated from Britain and public opinion in the United States would be “profoundly disturbed.” The editorial concluded by urging reconsideration of partition “which at least gives a measure of justice to the Arabs and permits us to keep faith with Jewry.”
Sixty per cent of Britons polled on the question of whether the British Government should continue its policy of allowing Jewish immigration into Palestine replied in the affirmative, it was revealed by the News-Chronicle. Fourteen per cent answered in the negative, while the remainder expressed no opinion. The survey was conducted by the British Institute of Public Opinion.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
