While the Palestine Government was today discussing with Jewish leaders in Jerusalem the various problems concerning the security of the country, Jews and Arabs alike learned for the first time, in this part of the world, of the important role which the Soviet armies have played in preventing a possible German invasion into Palestine, Syria, Egypt, and other neighboring countries.
The entire Egyptian press, published in Arab, English and French languages, was encouraged by the British authorities here today to carry the full quotations from Churchill’s momentous speech in which he disclosed yesterday to the British Parliament that if not for the defeat of the Nazi armies on the Soviet front, Palestine and Syria would have been “exposed to grievous danger.”
Particularly featured in the press here today are the parts of Churchill’s speech in which he said that the British people “must thank Russia because the valor of the Russian armies has warded off the dangers which we undoubtedly ran in the Nile Valley, Palestine, Syria, Iraq and Persia.” Also the section in which the British Prime Minister told the Parliament yesterday that “it is only by the victory of the Russian front and on the Black Sea coast that we have been spared the overrunning of all those lands from the Levant to the Caspian, which in turn gives access to India, Persia, the Persian Gulf, the Nile Valley and the Suez Canal.”
Parallel with Churchill’s speech on the danger which Palestine, Syria and other Eastern countries faced until the defeat of the German armies on the Russian front, the press here today carries news from Jerusalem that James S. MacPherson, chief secretary of the Palestine Government, received yesterday a Jewish delegation with which he discussed various problems concerning the security of Palestine. The delegation included Isaac Ben-Zvi, the head of the Jewish National Council, Mayor Israel Rokach of Tel Aviv, and M. Gorodivsky, the president of the association of local Jewish town councils in Palestine.
The Egyptian press also reports today that during the year of 1940 Palestine exported clothing worth $500,000 to Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Cyprus and South Africa. This is the first time that the above countries have placed orders for clothing in Palestine.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.