Yiddish Press on the Palestine Situation; “forward” Defends Government; “morning Journal” Assails It

An effort by the British government to correct its previous action in stopping temporarily Jewish immigration into Palestine is seen by Jacob Fishman, writing in the “Jewish Morning Journal” of Thursday, in the speech delivered by Dr. Shiels, British undersecretary for the Colonies, before the Mandates Commission of the League of Nations.

“The most important point in Dr. Shiels’ speech”, says Mr. Fishman, “is his statement that the government expects to have Simpson’s report with regard to immigration in a ‘few weeks’, and that the number of the halutzim-immigrants for the six months ending September has not yet been finally determined.

“This statement shows perhaps a way out for the London government of the ugly situation in which it has placed itself now that the injustice has been committed. But all this cannot excuse the false principle upon which the stoppage is based. When we protest against the act we do so because we say, with justice, that no Simpson can determine the fate of our halutzim, and that his report concerns us little. We protest because we regard the appointment of Simpson and the revocation of the halutzim certificates as a political, and not an economic, act. We regard Simpson’s appointment as a political trick, meant to satisfy the Arab delegation, and we protest against political tricks on the part of a Labor government”.

BRITISH EMPIRE FACING CRISIS

Two things must be borne in mind with regard to the present crisis in Zionism, according to Chaim Lieberman, writing in Thursday’s “Forward”. The first is that Englishmen and Jews, who are partners in the Palestine undertaking, are temperamentally very different from each other, the English being calm, sober and patient and the Jews being of a restless and impatient nature. In the second place, the entire British Empire is now undergoing a severe crisis.

“The crisis in the British Empire is more serious than the crisis in Zionism,” says Lieberman. “The British Empire is a great net which covers half of the world, and Palestine is part of it. And when part of the net, in some remote corner of the world, begins to tear away, all the rest must feel it. It is a great historic misfortune that the fate of the Jewish Palestine should have been linked with England, just when the latter is beginning to go down-hill. If the case were the opposite, if England were now in the period of constructing, and not of repairing, the structure which is now beginning to totter, Jewish Palestine would be built up much easier and quicker.”

ASSERTS PROTESTS HURT ZIONISM

A defense of the MacDonald government’s recent action towards Zionism, which is linked up with the situation in India, is contained in an editorial in last Saturday’s “Forward,” which says among other things:

“Hysterical cries and condemnations of the MacDonald government will only serve to enrage, and perhaps to antagonize, the best friends which the Palestine Jews have in England. One must bear in mind that Jewish Palestine never had too many friends in the governing circles of England. One must remember that the Jews cannot afford to drive away those friends which Palestine has made for itself. The language which some patriotic Zionists are using nowadays against MacDonald, the hysteria which they show, their inciting cries, may have this effect. These people are doing the workers in Palestine more harm than good.”

SAYS GOVERNMENT INHERITED POLICIES

In the same issue of the “Forward,” Dr. A. Ginzburg argues that the Mac-Donald government was not the first to issue orders restricting immigration and land purchase in Palestine, but that it inherited its Palestine policies from former governments, just as it inherited the troubles in India and the unemployment situation in Great Britain itself, and that it is not so easy for the Labor government to rid itself of these heritages, especially when it has no majority.

“The first one who instituted the British policies with regard to Palestine was none other than the Jewish High Commissioner, Sir Herbert Samuel, a Zionist,” says Dr. Ginzburg. “He was the first to close the doors of Palestine for Jewish immigrants after the Jaffa pogrom. He was the first who found it necessary to reward the pogromists for their noble work. He appointed the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem to the important post which he now occupies. Through his initiative the Churchill White Paper which virtually abolishes the Balfour Declaration was issued.”