Conditional acceptance by Dr. Chaim Weizmann, president of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, of the proposed legislative council is reported today by El Liwaa, usually well-informed Arab daily. No confirmation of the report could be obtained here.
According to the paper, eight conditions on which Jews would accept the council, which they have unanimously opposed since it was proposed last December, were outlined by Dr. Weizmann in a letter to the High Commissioner, Sir Arthur Grenfell Wauchope.
The reported conditions are:
1. Legalization of illegal immigrants before the council elections.
2. A minimum Jewish immigration of 50,000 annually for five years.
3. The Jewish Agency to supervise immigration of capitalists.
4. The Transjordan to be opened to Jewish settlement.
5. Literacy tests for voters; decrease in the number of appointive members of the council, increase in the number of businessmen members and reduction of the total membership to 24 from 28, of which eleven would be Jews.
6. Individual election slates.
7. Public works to be distributed in accordance with a system set forth in former Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald’s letter to Dr. Weizmann, written after the famous Passfield White Paper in 1931. (The letter promised Jews would share in public employment in proportion to their contribution to revenues.)
8. The council not to be permitted to discuss racial or national questions.
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.
