Unconditional Admission of 100,000 Jews to Palestine Was Provided, Crum Reveals

All members of the Anglo-American inquiry committee agreed unanimously that the 100,000 Jewish refugees in Europe should be admitted to Palestine “without condition,” it was stated here today by Bartley Crum, one of the American members of the committee.

Mr. Crum’s statement came in reply to the announcement yesterday by Prime Minister Clement R. Attlee that the Jews would not be admitted to Palestine until the “illegal armies” there disband and surrender their arms.

“I am deeply shocked at the statement of Prime Minister Attlee that the admission of 100,000 Jews into Palestine would be conditioned on the disarming of ‘illegal armies’ and the surrender of their arms,” Crum said. “The recommendation of the Anglo-American Committee unanimously was that these tragic victims of the Nazis should be admitted into Palestine in 1946, without condition. The point which the Prime Minister raises was made in our discussions, and rejected upon two grounds:

“1. That it would be indecent and inhuman to try to trade their lives upon condition that the Jews of Palestine surrender their arms.

“2. That the so-called “illegal army,” the Haganah, would scarcely fight against the immigration of this 100,000 unfortunate people.

“On the contrary, all evidence showed that the Haganah, indeed the entire Jewish population of Palestine, will welcome these unfortunate people. On the latter point we have confirming evidence from the Palestine Government itself, both from the military and from the police that advised us they expected very little trouble even from the extremely nationalist Arabs.”