tended to specify Transjordan as the seat of this development, but had omitted to do so for the reason explained by him.
Lord Snell said that in his meeting with Abdullah he had formed the impression that Abdullah harbored no passion against the Jews in Western Palestine, and he was therefore not altogether surprised to learn of his willingness to improve conditions in Transjordan by attracting Jewish settlement. He, personally, would be delighted if an arrangement could be arrived at for Jewish settlement in Transjordan, he said.
Asked for his impressions during his stay in the United States, Lord Snell said that he was struck by the remarkable difference in the Jewish attitude to Palestine as compared with that obtaining several years ago. Only a few years ago the Jews in America regarded their Zionist work as something remote and as an activity carried out for others and not really for themselves. A fundamental change has now occurred in this attitude, and American Jews were now thinking of Palestine as a place for themselves, as a country in which they might retrieve the prosperity which had disappeared in the United States. He went on to say that he was glad to learn that many of the American Jews who go to Palestine were, by the advice of the American Economic Committee for Palestine and similar agencies, embarking on industrial activity. It has always been his view that the Jews should not wholly concentrate in Palestine on agriculture, a field which was restricted by the land area and in which competition with the Arabs tended to accentuate antipathies. He had always believed that in industry, taking into account Palestine’s geographical position and the opening of the Haifa Harbor, the Jews would successfully create the possibility of a considerable Jewish immigration without increasing Arab tension.
Lord Snell added that he had also been pleased to notice that there was now less distrust of the British Government among the American Jews, a situation which would be helpful in facilitating British-Jewish cooperation and the work in Palestine generally.
Lord Snell will sail for Europe Friday.
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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.
