News Brief

ternational obligation pledging equality to them; secondly, Dr. Weizmann, who is the sanest Zionist leader, realized that without the consent of the Arab population the full success of the Jewish National Home cannot be assured.”

PROMISES SQUARE DEAL FOR ALL

The government spokesmen concluded with an appeal for better racial feelings and the need for tolerance, and said the British government would give a square deal to both sides in honor and good faith.

Expressing doubt as to the paternity of the White Paper, Colonel Leopold Amery, Colonial Secretary in the last Conservative government, who followed Dr. Shiels, suggested that that document was as much a bombshell for the cabinet as it was for the Jews. Colonel Amery, the first of the Conservative speakers, welcomed the assurance that there was no intention of going back on the Mandate and that a square deal would be given Jews and Arabs alike and that the Balfour Declaration would be kept fully in mind.

AMERY CONDEMNS WHITE PAPER

The White Paper, Colonel Amery, declared, was a peculiar document “containing only negative passages from the Simpson report and omitting the positive passages. The outcry against it the world over should have been avoided. Now Moslems and Jews are mobilized against it.” Was it not a disaster, he asked, for “with a little prudence, foresight, psychology and tact it might have been avoided. The impression among Arabs and Englishmen was that the whole operation of the Mandate would be crystallized for a period of years.”

Referring to the reorganization of the Palestine police force, the former Colonial Secretary, said it was a mistake because it was the “absence of a purely British and impartial force of sufficient strength that made possible the spreading of the riots.”

PREMIER SAYS MANDATE NOT ABANDONED

While circumstances have made necessary a “pulling up” in the rapidity of the development of the Jewish National Home “it in no way means an abandonment of the Palestine Mandate,” Prime Minister MacDonald declared in his address during the Palestine debate. The Premier emphasized that there was nothing in the White Paper to justify the conclusion that the government wishes to stop Jewish immigration into Palestine.

Replying to Colonel Amery, the Premier assured the House of Commons that the Mandate would be carried out but when considering conditions in Palestine, he said, “one must admit that the Mandate must be carried out in such a way as to avoid civil disorders as a result of its operation.” Referring to his visit to Palestine a few years ago, Mr. MacDonald said it was impossible for anyone who has seen what he saw to be too extravagant in tribute to the Jewish colonizers who “turned a barren land into a cultivated land and who are making an extraordinary transformation with the spirit of labor over Palestine.”

He said he saw university graduates whose hands became hardened with labor on the land. These people, he declared, must be given “full opportunity for development but unless economic terms are arranged between Jews and Arabs there will be difficulties in the way of a settlement on the land question. Experiments after experiments have been conducted since the 1929 troubles but they have left the difficulty unsolved.

MUST FACE LAND QUESTION BOLDLY

“It was evident from the Simpson report that the land question will give a great deal of trouble unless boldly faced. Since the White Paper has been issued a great deal of attention has been given to the subject and arrangements have been made, in which the treasury conferred regarding financial assistance.”

Touching on the problem of immigration, Prime Minister MacDonald stated “there is nothing in the White Paper justifying the conclusion and the propaganda which has been carried on that the government wishes to stop immigration or to curtail immigration merely upon the figures of Arab unemployment. Consideration must be taken into account that economic trouble immediately starts a religious conflagration.

ASKS JEWS TO TAKE GOVERNMENT’S WORD

“Touch the life of an Eastern people at one point and it is found ultimately to come around to what is the foundation of Eastern life, namely religious convictions which are not separable. The Zionists might be disappointed with the conditions which pulled-up the rapidity of development but circumstances are such that the pull-up is necessary. But will the Jews take our word for it that the pull-up is in no sense an abandonment of the Mandate or a change of policy?

“The government will do its duty. At the present moment the government is consulting with representatives of the Zionist movement and will be only too glad to keep in similar touch with the Arabs. The government will carry out the Mandate in both its aspects, bending every energy to enable the development policy to continue under conditions which will make harmony between the Jews and Arabs closer and closer so that the Arabs may continue to enjoy the benefits they have already gotten from Jewish immigration and the Jews may see coming a more and more complete embodiment of their ideal of the Jewish National Home.”

BURY AND ROTHSCHILD CROSS WORDS

Howard Bury, anti-Zionist member, pleaded with the Jews to abandon political Zionism and to concentrate on making Palestine a cultural home “which none of the Arabs will oppose”. Some heated cross-floor discussion followed when Bury mentioned the eviction of Arabs from land. James