Late Palestine News Jews to Make No Offers at London Parley, Ussishkin Holds

The Jews will wait to hear proposals at the London conferences since they have no proposal to offer but preservation of Jewish rights, Menachem Mendel Ussishkin, president of the Zionist General Council and of the Jewish National Fund, said today before sailing from Haifa on the steamship Galilee for London.

“Despite the conviction that the Jews should not participate because the London discussions have as their object the fulfillment of Arab demands at the expense of the Jews, I am going, since the majority of the Jewish Agency Executive decided to participate and vigorously demanded my presence to share the responsibility,” Mr. Ussishkin told the Hebrew daily, Haaretz. “I could not refuse because there can be no split in the Zionist Organization at this difficult time.”

Joshua Suprassky, a member of the delegation sent by the Jewish National Assembly, in an interview rejected the view that the Jews were going “like Isaac to the sacrifice.” He said that despite mistakes that had been made, there was no reason for panic. The delegation was joined by Rabbi Jacob Fishman, a leader of the Mizrachi.

Meanwhile, the Arab moderates were assured representation in the conferences when the Arab National Defense Party reached an agreement with the Government to send a delegational of five from the party. The delegation includes Ragheb Bey Nashashibi, ex-mayor of Jerusalem and leader of the party; his cousin, Mayor Fakhri Bey Nashashibi of Bethlehem, and Suleiman Bey Toukan, as the voting members, and Mahmed Tounis el Husseini, secretary, and an adviser not yet named. The British Government had made it clear that it would not consider the Palestine Arabs as completely represented unless the Nashashibi party sent delegates. The Arab extremists, under the control of the exiled ex-Mufti of Jerusalem, had resisted the inclusion of National Defense Party representatives.