Palestine Loan Passes Commons Second Reading

A bill that will float the £2,000,000 loan in behalf of the Palestine government passed its second reading in the House of Commons today. Three readings are required for adoption.

The motion to pass the bill was made by Sir Philip Cunliffe-Lister, British Secretary of State for the Colonies, following a stormy debate which evoked from prominent members of the Commons violent reproach which condemned the British policies in the Holy Land.

Featured in the discussion was a statement by Colonel Josiah Wedgwood to the effect that Britain has broken faith with the Jewish people and that her present policies are contrary to promises made in the Balfour Declaration. The £2,000,000 loan, which will be used chiefly in public works and in extending aid to landless Arabs in Palestine will, according to Colonel Wedgwood, lead to economic hardship for the very people whom it is intended to help.

LABOR SORE NEED, HE SAYS

The Colonel asserted that the Palestine authorities are attempting to import capital where it is not wanted, and at the same time to export labor, which is one of the sore needs of the country where economic prosperity is at present an establishd fact.

Simultaneous with repeated requests by Palestine trade unions for permission to have workers enter the Holy Land in large numbers, the government authorities are debarring them. Colonel Wedgewood insisted that the loan will increase land values, increase rents which already are excessive, and would not benefit the poor.

Couching his views in eloquent language, Colonel Wedgwood scathingly assailed the British immigration policies of restricting immigration of Jews and preventing Jewish tourists from entering the country, a measure which was intended to curtail illegal immigration which was for a time reported to be a common thing.

“Unfair, injust and un-English” were the adjectives used by the speaker in describing British policies, which he declared are worse than those practiced in anti-Semitic countries, Rumania and Poland.

Colonel Wedgwood continued in a bitter fighting speech to chide the English regime in Palestine for having broken faith with the Jews and of turning people prepared to be friends into enemies.

UNFAIR TO JEWS

He declared that it was unfair to argue that the Jews received large sums of money from the United States and that therefore the Arabs should receive the benefits of the loan. He pointed out that taxation is equally the burden of Jews and Arabs and that it would be unfair to use money derived from taxation for the benefit of one group only.

“It is inexcusable to give self-government to Arab communities and to deny it to Jewish communities ten times their size,” Colonel Wedgwood said. He declared that the educated, politically minded Jews were deprived of votes and asked whether the government considered that fair.

“The Jews, who a few years ago were prepared to be the best friends of the British, are losing faith and hope in the British government and are saying, we don’t expect justice, ‘we never had it and never shall have it.’

“I am not pro-Jewish,” Colonel Wedgwood said. “I am pro-English, but these things made me more bitter even than the Jews, because I placed a high value on the reputation of England for justice.”

One injustice after another has led to the belief that the present government in Palestine was anti-Semitic, Colonel Wedgwood concluded.

Issac Foot, Liberal, supported the bill saying that Colonel Wedgwood’s apprehensions were groundless.

Sir Philip Cunliffe-Lister attacked Wedgwood declaring that he had reasons for believing that Colonel Wedgwood’s championship was distasteful to many Jews.

Rhys J. Davies, Laborite, who returned from Palestine recently, declared that he could not understand the necessity for the loan since the government could carry on without it. He also attacked the immigration restrictions against the Jews.