Replying point by point to the attack on the British government’s White Paper on Palestine by Sir John Simon and Viscount Hailsham in a letter to the London Times, Lord Passfield, Colonial Secretary, in a statement to the same paper today defends his Palestine policy.
Saying that it is “reassuring to find that such high authorities as Viscount Hailsham and Sir John Simon do not indicate that there is anything in the White Paper inconsistent with the Balfour Declaration and the Mandate save that they seek to draw from the language used in paragraphs 15, 19 to 23, and 28 three inferences which are unjustified and made plausible only by inaccurate representation of the contents, not one of which is quoted verbatim,” Lord Passfield launched into a detailed defense of the bitterly criticized White Paper.
Lord Passfield takes issue with the “first inference from paragraph 15 which is represented as meaning the impossibility of making unoccupied state lands available for Jewish settlement.” There is no statement whatever in the document, he says, that “it is not possible to make these lands available for Jewish settlement nor do the words employed justify such an inference.”
SAYS NO BAN ON JEWISH LABOR
He then seeks to break down the feeling that the White Paper demands that the Jewish Agency discontinue its practice of employing only Jewish labor. He says that the “second inference from paragraphs 19 to 23 is interpreted as meaning that the existing practice of the Jewish Agency of employing Jewish labor and stipulating in its leases that only Jewish labor must be employed ‘must be brought to an end.’ The paragraph does not contain such words, and only draws attention to the practice, to contrast it with the attitude of good-will toward the Arab people expressed in the declaration of the Zionist Congress of 1921, to give the Jewish leaders their own justification of the policy involved, and to indicate that the policy and arguments used in support of it take no account of the obligation under Article 6 of the Mandate to ensure that the rights and position of other sections of the population are not prejudiced.”
Lord Passfield then turns to immigration and asserts that the inference from paragraph 28 has been interpreted as meaning that Jewish immigration will not be permitted as long as it might prevent any Arab from obtaining employment.
DENIES IMMIGRATION STOPPAGE
“The intention of the White Paper,” he says, “was to make the possibility of the suspension of Jewish immigration contingent upon unemployment upon such a scale as would have a serious effect in preventing the Arab population from obtaining the work necessary for its maintenance. There was, of course, no intention of suggesting that immigra-
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