Captain Crookshank (Conservative) asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies, in the House of Commons this afternoon, whether he was aware of a condition laid down by the Emir Abdullah forbidding the employment of Jews on the Transjordan portion of the Iraq Oil Pipe Line, and whether in view of the terms of the Mandate he would state what steps he proposed to take in the matter.
Sir Philip Cunliffe Lister, the Colonial Secretary, replied: I am informed that the Emir Abdullah has laid down no such condition as suggested in the first part of the question. The second part of the question does not therefore arise.
The statement, attributed by the Palestine Arab paper “Felestin” to Mr. Lang, the Director of the Palestine Section of the Pipe Line Company, was reported in a Jerusalem cable appearing in the J.T.A. Bulletin of the 10th. inst. The “Palestine Bulletin” of the same date which has since arrived in London, quotes the “Felestin” in reporting an interview with Mr. Lang, saying that Mr. Lang “denied the rumour that the company is discriminating between the various sections of the population. He has already met a number of members of various Arab Organisations, and has come to an understanding with them.
“Mr. Lang also denied that Jewish workers are being engaged in Transjordan. His Highness the Emir Abdullah has made it a condition that no Jewish worker should be engaged on Transjordan territory”, the paper said.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
