Dr. Chaim Weizmann, president of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, struck a fighting note in conferences with French Zionist leaders about the land-sale restriction in Palestine, following his arrival by Clipper from the United States, it was learned today.
Dr. Weizmann, who has always been a champion of moderation in the Zionist movement, was reported to have said during the conferences yesterday that nothing remained for Jewry but to engage in an open and bitter fight for its rights in palestine.
This is the warning which the Zionist leader will personally deliver to the British Government when he proceeds to London. The “war within a war” which Dr. Weizmann intends to proclaim will have no effect on world Jewish support for the Allies in the war against Germany, which will be steadfastly maintained.
However, plans will be mapped out by the Jewish Agency Executive in London which will enable Dr. Weizmann on his arrival there to advise British statesmen that the Jews of the world, especially the Jews of Palestine, will not swallow the land ordinance without organized opposition since they regard it as undermining the basis of the Jewish homeland and as violating the League of Nations mandate.
Le Populaire, Socialist organ of ex-Premier Leon Blum, severely criticizes the MacDonald policy, declaring that the Colonial Secretary’s sudden move will not help to improve Arab-Jewish relations.
“The ordinance is the result of an optical illusion,” the paper states, “and its consequences can be the opposite of what the British Government expected. The problem of the hour is to secure Arab-Jewish cooperation in order to defeat the totalitarian powers. However, this can only be done if the blind alley into which MacDonald’s policy has pushed the Palestine question is abandoned.”
During his stay in Paris, Dr. Weizmann is expected to see high French officials in view of the fact that France, holding the mandate over Syria, is not indifferent to what is going on in Palestine.
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