Effects of Quebec Conference on Palestine Discussed by Zionist Actions Committee

The Roosevelt-Churchill conferences which are taking place in Washington, as well as the recent Allied conference at Quebec, will have an effect on the Jewish position in Palestine, it was indicated here today by Moshe Shertok, head of the political department of the Jewish Agency, addressing a closed session of the Zionist Actions Committee.

Mr. Shertok also reported on his negotiations in Turkey and in Cairo with regard to the future status of Palestine. He vigorously denied the rumors that the Jewish Agency is ready to compromise on its demand for a Jewish Commonwealth and accept the former British partition plan which suggested that Palestine be divided into three parts, one of which should be proclaimed as a Jewish state. The Jewish Agency, he said, considers the Biltmore Declaration as the only basis for negotiations.

During his stay in Cairo, Mr. Shertok held conversations in behalf of the Jewish Agency with his Turkish officials on the question of rescuing Jews from the Nazi-dominated Balkan countries.

A number of Palestine newspapers this week demanded Mr. Shertok’s resignation from the Jewish Agency. The Hebrew daily newspaper Haaretz, reported that the immediate resignation of Mr. Shertok has also been demanded by leaders of the Palestine Jewish Labor Party of which he is a member. The executive of the Jewish Agency, however, issued a statement to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency today declaring that “Shertok was never so far from resignation as now.” Simultaneously, the labor paper Davar today denied that any member of the Palestine Labor Party ever demanded Shertok’s resignation.

PREPARATIONS FOR CONTACT WITH EUROPEAN JEWRIES IS URGED

Addressing today’s session of the Actions Committee. Shertok emphasized that it is the immediate duty of Jewish organizations to make preparations for the establishment of contact with the Jewish communities of liberated Europe at the end of the war. He also dwelt, in his three-hour address, on the propaganda against the Jews of Palestine and the Zionist movement now being spread by hostile elements.

David Ben-Gurion, chairman of the executive of the Jewish Agency, addressing the session, pointed out that grave dangers still confront the surviving Jewish communities in Europe. He urged that “all forces be mustered to combat the new attempts of hostile elements to tarnish the name of the Yishuv and of the Jewish nation in the eyes of the democratic world.”

The Actions Committee adopted a resolution voicing encouragement to the Jews in Europe and sent greetings to the American Jewish Conference which concluded its sessions in New York yesterday.

The Palestine newspapers today report that the police have detained twenty-three illegal Jewish immigrants who entered the country from a neighboring land. The youngest “illegal entrant” is three months old.