Weizmann Appeals for Self-restraint

Dr. Chaim Weizmann, president of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, today associated the Agency’s executive with the appeal of the Palestine Jewish National Council for self-restraint and condemned any outburst of reprisals.

In a statement urging maintenance of self-restraint, Dr. Weizmann pointed out that legitimate self-defense, discipline and constructive work constituted the best reply to Arab terrorism. The overwhelming majority of Palestine Jewry is determined to maintain a policy of non-retaliation, he said.

Colonial Secretary Malcolm MacDonald confirmed the dispatching of two rifle battalions from Egypt to Palestine, which will remain until the arrival later this year of a brigade to be stationed in the Holy Land. He said that Palestine High Commissioner Sir Harold Alfred MacMichael reported the Haifa situation quiet but tense.

The prospect of martial law in Palestine was termed by the Daily Telegraph today a “poor return for all the disinterested endeavor of British statesmanship for a solution” of the troubled situation in the Holy Land. Agreeing that British forces in Palestine needed to be “substantially reinforced,” the paper continued: “The outstanding merit of partition is that it is the only policy for escape from an intolerable situation. Periods of uncertainty must be avoided, above all it will be disastrous to capitulate to disorder.”