Weizmann Says New British Proposal Has All Disadvantages, No Advantages of Peel Plan

The new British proposals for Palestine were described today by Dr. Chaim Weizmann as having all the disadvantages of the Peel Commission’s plan, which was issued in 1937, and none of the advantages. The Zionist leader said that he has heard nothing official concerning the new plan.

In an address read for him to a mass meeting in the Palace theatre here, Dr. Weizmann, who was unable to attend because of ill health, said that Jews throughout the world condemn the bombing of the King David Hotel. The Jewish community of Palestine, he added, must not only condemn, but must exert all efforts to insure that “such a crime is never again possible.”

He pointed out, however, that a “lamentable thing was done to the Yishuv on June 29.” Life cannot be normal in a country where any citizen can be arrested without a warrant or reason, where a strict censorship prevails and where thousands of men and women languish in detention camps for months, Dr. Weizmann continued.

“What the British and the Jews need more than anything else in Palestine today is normality,” he added. Searches and arrests have aggravated the situation, which was already tense as the result of procrastination over the admission of the 100,000 Jews recommended by the inquiry committee and by President Truman.

Prof. Selig Brodetsky, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, told the meeting that he was unalterably opposed to Jewish participation in the projected round-table conference of Jews, Arabs and Britons proposed by the British Government. Other speakers included Barnett Janner, Labor M.P. and vice president of the British Zionist Federation and Berl Locker, Zionist labor leader.

BRITISH PRESS COOL TO EXPERTS’ PLAN; DOUBT WHETHER IT CAN BE. ENFORCED

Political observers of all Sunday newspapers were extremely doubtful today that Arabs and Jews would agree to the proposed plan for Palestine which, it was pointed out, the Arabs have already rejected while the Jews have reacted unenthusiastically.

The press also points out that the proposal falls short of even the Peel plan and frustrates the economic development necessary for the absorption of 100,000 Jews. Writing in News of the World, Richard Wyndham, recently returned from Palestine and the Middle East, states-bluntly that the partition scheme was born of failure and can be enforced only at the point of a bayonet. “Cutting in half a child claimed by both the Arabs and the Jews is far from the wisdom of Solomon. It is a policy of despair.”

The Sunday Times’ editorial says that no useful comment can be made on the Palestine plan until the basis for a new immigration policy is decided. The Times states that either a Jewish State in part of Palestine can be established now or the British and American Governments should tell the Jews that a Jewish National Home will never be set up. “Justice for Palestine,” the editorial goes on, “must be positive as well as unrelenting.”

It was announced here tonight that Sir John Shaw, Chief Secretary of the Palestine Government, is en route to London by air to confer with the Colonial Office. One report said that Shaw was on a special mission for High Commissioner Sir Alan G. Cunningham.