No British government has ever done as much for Palestine as the present Labor government, Premier MacDonald declared today in a statement issued on behalf of James Hall, Labor candidate in the parliamentary by-election in Whitechapel. Not only is the government not aiming to discontinue or prohibit Jewish immigration, the Premier said, but “we are providing for a continuation of colonization operations without a break and we are planning a large scheme of land development and irrigation with the object of making additional land available for Jews and Arabs. We propose to guarantee a loan of $12,500,000 for this purpose. Has any government ever done as much?”
The Prime Minister’s statement on behalf of the Labor candidate is the latest indication of the anxiety with which the government is watching the Whitechapel campaign where because the Jewish electorate is 40 per cent of the total the White Paper and the Palestine policy are the chief issues. The Conservatives are making a strenuous fight to wrest this seat from the government, Lord Melchett having urged the Jewish voters to support the Conservative nominee. The Liberal candidate is a Zionist leader.
Premier MacDonald said “efforts will undoubtedly be made to misinterpret to the electors the intentions of the government regarding the carrying out of the Mandate and the establishment of the Jewish National Home. The debate in the House of Commons showed how groundless was the attack of the Liberals and Conservatives. We are determined to carry out the Mandate, in which the Balfour Declaration is embodied, in a most conscientious way and in full accordance with the interpretation of that Mandate given in the 1922 White Paper to which all successive governments have subscribed.”
He also stated that the government is now consulting with the Jewish representatives and assured the Jews that “the Labor party is second to none in its sympathy with the ideal of the Jewish National Home and in its desire to facilitate whatever expansion of that National Home, in accordance with the terms of the Mandate, may prove practicable.”
It is understood that the Premier’s statement has not been received enthusiastically by the Poale Zion, Socialist Zionist party, which has been supporting the Labor candidate in Whitechapel. The by-election is set for December 3.
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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.
