Motives Cited by Britain for Land Act Disputed by Smilansky

Official British assertions that the Palestine land act was motivated by the desire to protect the economic interests of the Arabs and to avert Arab unrest were sharply refuted at a press conference today by President Moshe Smilansky of the Palestine Jewish Farmers’ Federation, who recently arrived for a three-month tour on behalf of the Jewish National Fund.

Smilansky pointed out that the assertions were contradicted by economic conditions of the Arabs in three Palestine areas – one in which Jewish colonization had been heavy, the second where it was light and the third where there were no Jews at all.

In the first area, Smilansky said the Arabs were experiencing prosperity as a direct consequence of the intensive Jewish colonization. Arab conditions were fair in the second category, Smilansky declared, while in the third they were “indescribable and no better than they had been 200 years ago.

Logic, Smilansky said, would have pointed to exactly the opposite policy from that taken by Colonial Secretary Malcolm MacDonald if the economic interests of the Arabs were motivating the British Government.

Concerning the contention that the land act was issued to avert Arab unrest, Smilansky asserted that Arab-Jewish relations in the six months preceding its issuant had been more cordial than they had been at any time in his 50 years in Palestine.

Smilansky emphasized that despite the restrictions on sale of land, there war still some 375,000 acres available for purchase, or as much as Jews had acquired in Palestine in the past 60 years.

Dr. Israel Goldstein, president of the J.N.F., presided at the luncheon. He praised the Jewish press for the manner in which it was keeping the public informed of the recent Palestine developments and sharply criticized the metropolitan press for failing adequately to reflect reaction in this country to the land ordinance.