The establishment of a special commission of American senators, congressmen and other notables for the purpose of preparing a plan for submission to the post-war peace conference which would guarantee "progress and justice" to the Jews in Palestine after the war, was urged here tonight by Senator Robert F. Wagner, chairman of the American-Palestine Committee, in an address delivered at the second annual dinner of the Committee.
The dinner, held to mark the twentieth anniversary of the passage of a joint resolution of Congress favoring "the establishment in Palestine of the National Home for the Jewish people," was attended by more than five hundred leaders in political, civic and industrial life. Ambassadors, ministers and representatives of seventeen of the United Nations and a large number of Senators and Congressmen were among those who attended the dinner. Dr. Chaim Weizmann, president of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, who was the principal speaker at the dinner, discussed the position of Palestine in the present war and the future of the Jewish National Home and its relation to the refugee problem and the post-war world.
"The test of the principles upon which President Roosevelt’s four freedoms and the Atlantic Charter are built is not whether large nations will maintain their strength, but whether they will help small and weak nations to achieve their rightful peace," Senator Wagner said. "The American Palestine Committee could help prepare for that day, as many other groups are already doing for other lands, by Creating a Commission to chart the course of progress and of justice for the Jewish people in the land that was Promised long ago. In its truest sense, the Homeland is destined to become a great new arsenal of democratic faith. I look forward to the day when Jewish Palestine, combining the spiritual values of the East with the progressive ideals of the West, will link the two together in a world fellowship of freedom."
PALESTINE’S STRATEGIC POSITION STRESSED BY SPEAKERS
The Senator demanded that Jews in Palestine be given a chance to "serve under British command and to face the enemy under their own flag, the official flag of their National Home."
Other speakers, including Sir Norman Angell, British Nobel peace prize winner, and diplomats of the United Nations, emphasized the strategic position of Palestine in the Middle Eastern front and pointed out that although the danger to Palestine has lessened for the moment, the Middle East may yet be among the decisive battlefields of the entire war.
A message from Lord Halifax, British Ambassador in Washington, was read at the gathering. Referring to Jewish grievances against England in connection with Palestine, Lord Halifax stressed the fact that the primary aim of both the Jews and England at present is to see Hitler defeated. Among the speakers were: Pierre Cot, former Minister for Air in the Daladier Cabinet; Jan Ciechanowski, Polish Ambassador; Ralph William Close, Minister of the Union of South Africa; Constantin Fotitch, Minster of Yugoslavia; Vladimir Hurban, Minister of Czechoslovakia; Mr. Cimon P. Diamontopolous, Minister of Greece, and Lieu Chieh, Counselor of the Chinese Embassy.
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