James G. McDonald, chairman of the President’s Advisory Committee on Political Refugees, speaking here, suggested that President Roosevelt urge the British Government to revoke limitations upon Jewish immigration into Palestine. McDonald, who was formerly League of Nations High Commissioner for Refugees from Germany, was the principal speaker at the fourth annual dinner-meeting of the Philadelphia Anti-Defamation Council in the Hotel Warwick.
The restrictions laid down in the so-called British White papers are “a violation of the spirit of the Mandate” based upon the Balfour Declaration establishing Palestine as a Jewish homeland, Mr. McDonald declared. “The reasons that Palestine is a natural haven in this crisis should be self-evident,” he said. “The proposal to use the facilities of Palestine involves sharp revision of the British attitude promulgated in a series of White Papers. But British White Papers are not unchangeable; they are not sacrosanct.
“The war crisis itself makes drastic changes in British immigration policies in Palestine inevitable,” Mr. McDonald continued. “The United States Government has the right and the duty to remind the British Government of our country’s legal right to be concerned at any White Paper violation of the Mandate. President Roosevelt might well remind Prime Minister Churchill that the latter, when he was in the opposition, made a historic protest against the present White Paper.”
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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.
