British Labor Congress Urges Government to Admit Refugees to Palestine

Citing mounting Jewish persecution in Fascist countries and the fostering of Arab opposition to the Jewish national home, the standing orders committee of the British Trades Unions Congress today urged the British Government to carry out its obligations under the Palestine mandate and admit Jewish immigrants to the extent of the country’s economic absorptive capacity.

A declaration adopted by the committee expressed abhorrence of the continuance of Jewish repressions in Fascist states. This, accompanied by Arab disorders, made Britain’s obligations under the mandate more urgent, the declaration said. It added that the reported Italian proposal for settlement of Jews in Ethiopia made it more imperative to admit refugees into Palestine.

The international labor movement was urged at this morning’s session to support Palestine Jewry in combating “Fascist activities which make use of the lack of political education of the Arab peasants to destroy the valuable social and economic Palestine work benefiting not only thousands of Jews driven out by dictatorships but also improving the political, social and economic conditions of the Arab population.” The appeal was voiced by Walter Schevenels of Belgium, general secretary of the International Federation of Trade Unions. He asserted that a new state was being built in Palestine “where the Jewish people, closely connected with the Arabs, might find a new home in a country they could call their own.”