Palestine Question at Socialist International.

The Palestine question came up for discussion at the last meeting of the Executive of the Second Socialist International, held recently at Zurich.

The report of the Secretariat of the International, which was signed by Dr. Friodrich Adler, contained the following passage: The entire Labour movement in Palestine has been dominated by the White Paper published by the British Government in October 1930. The Palestine Labour Party, which is affiliated to the International issued a proclamation taking a strong stand against the Palestine policy of the British Labour Government. The elections in January 1931 to the Palestine Jewish National Assembly resulted in a great victory for the Palestine Labour Party, affiliated to the International, which obtained 22,363 votes out of the total number of 47,335. Four proletarian separatist parties obtained 3,000 votes in all, and the bourgeois parties obtained 21,962 votes.

Mr. Alter, the representative of the Jewish Labour Party Bund in Poland, which participated for the first time in the Executive of the International, said in the course of his declaration that the Bund in Poland fights against Zionism, which it regards as a dangerous Utopia, and an ideal of the Jewish bourgeoisie.

The Poale Zion representative, Mr. Jarblum, delivered a long speech describing the situation in Palestine and the Palestine policy of the British Labour Government. The protest movement against the British White Paper on Palestine was not confined to the Palestine Labour movement, he said. It had embraced the entire Zionist Socialist movement, and also a large section of the Jewish working class outside the Zionist movement, especially the organised Jewish workers of America This movement, he said, provided the strongest argument against the attacks made on Zionism. Masses of Jewish workers in all countries stand behind the Palestine workers and the Poale Zion movement. If the situation in Palestine had been changed it was largely due to the friends of Palestine in the British Labour Party, Mr. Jarblum went on, proceeding to express the appreciation of the Poale Zion movement to these Pro-Palestine leaders of British Labour. The Poale Zion, had even in the darkest moment not lost its confidence in the Labour Party, he said. In the Whitechapel by-election, the Poale Zion had called upon the Jewish electors to vote for the Labour Party candidate. The letter which Mr. Ramsay MacDonald had sent Dr. Weizmann, compiled in conjunction with Mr. Arthur Henderson, had given the Jews the possibility of building up their centre in Palestine on the basis of work and peace with the Arabs. Such Labour peace can abd will come about, he declared. The Socialists in the Pro-Palestine Labour movement in all countries who had at the blackest moments held it their duty to proclaim their solidarity with the workers of Palestine, now claimed their profound gratitude.

Mr. Jarblum went on to speak of the last Parliamentary elections in Poland, in which the Poale Zion had entered into an election pact with the Bund and the Left Socialists. Unfortunately he said, the efforts of the Poale Zion to conclude an all-Socialist bloc had encountered the resistance of the Polish Socialist Party, which had to some extent affiliated itself with antisemitic and chauvinist parties.

Mr. Gillies, on behalf of the British Labour Party, replied sharply to the attacks which had been made on the British Labour Party. The Jews were entitled to protest, he said, when they believed that the White Paper could be interpreted in various ways The Labour Party had therefore insisted that this matter must be cleared up. He wanted to express agreement with Mr. Jarblum’s declaration, Mr. Gillies concluded, and he hoped that all those misunderstandings which still exist will also be removed.