Jews Will Not Cooperate in Arab State, Wise Asserts on Return from London

The Jews of Palestine and of the world will not cooperate in the formation of an independent Palestine State as envisioned by Great Britain, Dr. Stephen S. Wise said in a statement today upon his return from the London conferences on the liner Queen Mary. The conference may prove to be another Munich, Dr. Wise said, but he was loath to believe that Great Britain would “take a step which the democratic world would view as yet another betrayal in appeasement of the unappeasable.”

“On shipboard six weeks ago,” the leader of the American Zionist delegation to the conferences declared, “mine was the horror of hearing the voice of Hitler calling for the destruction of the Jewish people as war mongers. That hideous experience was a forecast of what my associates and I were destined to find throughout the London conferences. We could not fail to feel that decisions were being taken in a world paralyzed by the specter of the dictator countries.

“Fear has taken the place of courage everywhere in Europe and everywhere, alas, includes Downing Street and Whitehall. We were faced in the London conference by the Arab hirelings rather than allies of Hitler and Mussolini. Neither British nor Arab denials can change the fact that if an independent Palestine, that is, Arab State, be now decreed, it is because the shadow of war is over London.

“Other grounds may be alleged but the conference may prove to be another ‘appeasement’ and Munich may give way to London as the scene of another great surrender. I still believe that the British Government will hesitate to take a step which the democratic world would view as yet another betrayal in appeasement of the unappeasable. No so-called safeguards in an independent Palestine State would avail to give Jews other than a minority or ghetto status. And such ghetto or minority status would violate England’s solemn pledge to establish a Jewish national home.

“In the formation of an independent Palestine State, the nearly half million Jews of Palestine and the Jews of the world will not cooperate. We have kept faith and cooperated with Great Britain for 20 years. The world, the Christian world, would now understand and respect Jewish non-cooperation in an independent Palestine State as the Jewish delegation at the Palestine conferences refused to cooperation in its formation.”

Rabbi Solomon Goldman, president of the Zionist Organization of America, and Mendel Fisher, executive director of the Jewish National Fund met Dr. Wise and Mrs. Wise on the steamer at Quarantine. A reception for Dr. Wise was held tonight at the Hotel Roosevelt under the auspices of the Z.O.A., Hadassah, Mizrachi and the Poale Zion-Zeire Zion.