The Nation, outstanding liberal weekly, today branded the British White Paper on Palestine a “sacrifice to imperial interest of a solemn obligation” and declared its promise of 75,000 Jewish immigrants in five years “no more than a sop to the world’s conscience.”
Referring to the document as a “Black Paper,” the Nation said it represented a “logical extension of Chamberlain’s appeasement policies to the Palestinian crisis” and predicted that, as in the case of the Munich pact, it would not bring peace.
The new Palestine policy was also denounced by Major Fred A. Partridge, a retired district superintendent of police in Palestine, in an interview with the press. Comparing the ex-Mufti of Jerusalem and his followers to the former Chicago Capone gang, Major Partridge said it was “simply unbelievable that the British Government should knuckle under to such a crew, and break its word to the Jews and the great majority of the Palestinians.” He predicted the White Paper would result in an “unprecedented fall” in British prestige throughout the Near and Far East.
Major Partridge, who served in the Palestine police free for 14 years, said the new policy was a “betrayal of the vast majority of Palestinian Arabs.” “This,” he said, “is the worst and least recognized of the regrettable results of the decision. With the Mufti and company in power, the moderates, consisting of the oldest and best families in the country are ruined.”
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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.
