Passfield Denies White Paper Mentions Immigration Suspension

“Not one of the twenty-three pages of the White Paper contains any word of stoppage of Palestine immigration or any prohibition of Jewish immigration,” declared Lord Passfield, British Colonial Secretary, in an interview with Reynold’s Newspaper, published yesterday. “In fact the colonization work can continue without a break,” the Colonial Secretary said.

Lord Passfield divided Jewish immigration into nine categories. Regarding eight of them restrictions do not exist and were not even suggested, he said. As for the ninth category under the labor schedule it is in accordance with the absorptive capacity of the country which had been the policy of successive British governments, he pointed out.

“The statement that in determining the absorptive capacity both Arab and

Jewish unemployment must be taken into consideration has been misunderstood,” Lord Passfield said, “as it refers only to any particular immigration calculated greatly to increase unemployment among the Arabs, which is in accordance with the terms of the Palestine Mandate.

“I venture to think,” Passfield concluded, “that if there is no repudiation of the Mandate and no stoppage of immigration and indeed no limit set to the ultimate possibilities of immigration to Palestine, there cannot be a serious complaint that this government is going back on the promises of the preceding governments. I consider the new government policy as one expanding the development of the mandated territory, which is exactly what some Jewish organizations have been pressing the government to undertake. For the sake of the future development the government has undertaken the task of setting a line of policy without which development is impossible,” Lord Passfield said.