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Premier Smuts Assumes Patronage over Youth Aliyah; Will Help Jewish Youngsters

December 9, 1943
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Field Marshal Jan Christian Smuts, Premier of South Africa who has temporarily replaced Winston Churchill as head of the British War Council, today became a patron of the Youth Aliyah which enables Jewish refugee children to come to Palestine.

In announcing Gen. Smuts’ acceptance, the Youth Aliyah headquarters here issued a statement reading: “Under the patronage of Premier Smuts we are looking confidently to the future when we hope to assume responsibility for many thousands of Jewish children who will be brought to Palestine as soon as more European countries are liberated.”

The Jews of Palestine cannot be blamed for arming themselves in view of the present situation in the country, it was stated today by S. S. Hammersley, Conservative M. P., in a letter to the London Times.

“The majority of the Arabs possess arms,” Hammersley points out, “and fearing that worse is to come the Jews have taken steps to defend themselves. Can we blame them?” He adds that the Arabs have used disorders as “an instrument of force to persuade the British Government to modify the original intention of a home in Palestine for the Jews.”

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