Dr. Stephen S. Wise, chairman of the Emergency Committee for Zionist Affairs, today praised British Ambassador Lord Lothian, who died this morning, for his sympathetic understanding of Palestine problems.
Here to confer with State Department officials on refugee problems, Dr. Wise said of Lord Lothian. “I often consulted with him on Palestine affairs and always found him understanding. He associated himself with the liberal, rather than the official viewpoint on the problem. He took the Churchill-Lloyd George view on Palestine rather than the view of the Colonial Office, which has not always been sympathetic to the Jews.”
Dr. Wise referred to Lord Lothian’s last statement on Palestine, in which he answered a protest by the Jewish People’s Committee of Pittsburgh regarding barring of illegal immigrants from Palestine. The Ambassador’s statement, Dr. Wise said, served notice on the Nazis and their satellite states that they could not infiltrate the Gestapo and professional trouble-makers aboard refugee ships and hope to bring them to Palestine.
Dr. Wise also denounced the Pittsburgh committee as a group which, “while racially Jews, are utterly indifferent to the well-being of the Jewish religion and people.” He said the protest was “entered not to help the Jewish people but as an expression of a party representing a government which has been far from close to the interests of the Jewish people.
Lord Lothian’s statement to the Pittsburgh group said:
“The decision of which you complain was taken in accordance with the immigration law of Palestine and furthermore on grounds of military security.
“It is not generally realized that the influx of refugees to Palestine is encouraged by the Axis powers. They do so not only in order to create the greatest possible difficulties for His, Majesty’s Government with Jews and Arabs alike, but with the object of introducing enemy agents into Palestine and the Middle East.
“The paramount duty of His Majesty’s Government toward Palestine in present circumstances is to maintain the safety of the country, and it was accordingly decided that such refugees must in future be sent elsewhere in the British Empire for the duration of the war.”
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