Jewish Agency Reply to French Report Submitted to Palestine Government

The Jewish Agency today submitted to the Palestine Government its observations in reply to the Report of Mr. Lewis French.

The Jewish Agency’s memorandum, which covers 66 pages, deals in detail with every point raised in the Report by Mr. Lewis French; it is accompanied by a covering letter of 30-pages.

The Report by Mr. Lewis French, which still remains unpublished, was one of the main subjects of consideration by the meeting of the Zionist Actions Committee held in London last August.

The Actions Committee eventually adopted the resolution instructing the Zionist Executive to reject the conclusions of the French Report and to prepare a reply criticizing it in detail. Although the exact text of the Report has not been made public, the Zionist leaders, who have perused it, have repeatedly described it as cutting away every possibility of Jewish development in Palestine. It is understood that Mr. French, in his Report, laid particular stress on the problem of the so-called displaced Arabs and recommended the introduction of a regime which would practically exclude Jews from acquiring new land for settlement.

In its reply, the Jewish Agency completely explodes the legend of the landless Arabs. The memorandum proves by facts and figures that far from being injurious, Jewish colonization has actually proved beneficial to the fellahin of the coastal plain, the very area in which the French Report recommended that the transfer of land to Jews should be restricted. The Jewish Agency memorandum submits to the Palestine Government data comparing the position of the Arab villages before and after the sale of part of their land to Jews. It illustrates the cases of numerous Arab villages who, by selling a portion of their land to Jews, were enabled to expend the purchase money on improvement and on the introduction of improved methods, and are now more prosperous than ever before.

In conclusion, the memorandum expresses confidence that the proposed restrictive land legislation was now void since the basis of Mr. French’s recommendations, dependent on the legend of displaced Arabs, had now been finally disproved.

The Fifth Annual Give-or-Get Twenty-five Dollar Luncheon, sponsored by the Brooklyn Chapter of Hadassah yesterday, was attended by more than 600 women in the grand ballroom of the Hotel Astor.The day had a dual significance, as it was National Hadassah’s twenty-first birthday, and the occasion of the culmination of Brooklyn Chapter’s intensive drive to raise the greater part of its annual quota for the Hadassah Medical Organization in Palestine.