Macdonald Denies Ban on Jewish Immigration; Says Colonization Can Continue

The British government neither intends to nor has it enacted any legislation stopping or prohibiting Jewish immigration and it expressly provides for the continuation of Jewish colonization operations in Palestine, according to a cable received here today from Premier Ramsay MacDonald. The cable, addressed to James Simpson, prominent Canadian labor leader, will be published tomorrow in the Toronto Star and the Toronto Daily Hebrew Journal.

Declaring that the protests against the British government’s statement of policy in Palestine are founded on a complete misconception, Premier MacDonald says that the government “has explicitly declared its intention of executing the Mandate exactly in accordance with all of its items. It makes no change whatever in the interpretation of the Mandate as adhered to by all successive ministries since 1922.”

Premier MacDonald denies that the government intends to or has already enacted any legislation aiming at the stoppage of prohibition of Jewish immigration to Palestine. On the contrary, he says that the government’s new policy “expressly provides for the continuation of colonization operations without a break. It sets no limit whatever to the expansion of the Jewish National Home that in accordance with the terms of the Mandate may prove practicable. It is indeed in order to make available additional land that the government undertakes a large scheme of land development and irrigation.”