Solution of Palestine Problem Deferred Until End of War, Churchill Announces in London

The solution of the Palestine problem will be put off until the end of the war and will not be taken up at the conference of the United Nations which opens in San Francisco on April 25, Prime Minister Churchill declared today in the House of Commons in the course of a report on the Yalta parley of the “Big Three.”

The Prime Minister also indicated that the talks held in Egypt are not to be construed as a general conference on basic problem of the Middle East since the Regent of Iraq and the Emir of Transjordan were not present. The Palestine question, he said, will be settled by the peace conference.

Churchill’s statement was received with mixed feelings in Zionist circles here. In a statement to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency Lord Strabolgi declared that he feels relieved that the Prime Minister made no pronouncement hostile to the policy of a Jewish National Home. “It would have been disastrous had we been presented with a decision regarding the future of the Palestine mandate, or with a decision for the partitioning of Palestine,” Lord Strabolgi said. “The fact that the Prime Minister said so little gives us hope for the future.”

Emphasizing that now is the time to prepare for a constructive policy with regard to the post-war status of Palestine and Transjordan, the Laborite poor said that the time must also be utilized for educating public opinion in all countries of the Allied Nations concerning Jewish demands for Palestine.

“The best solution for Palestine is to proclaim the country a British Dominion,” he continued. “In the meantime, the most urgent question is to secure new immigration certificates for Jews desiring to enter Palestine. These new certificates would enable the Jewish Agency to send to Palestine distressed survivors of the Balkan countries and other liberated territories.”