Partitioning of Palestine Proposed on Eve of Opening of World Zionist Conference

A proposal that the Palestine problem be solved by partitioning the country into separte Jewish and Arab zones is advocated for the first time today by the Manchester Guardian, on the eve of the World Zionist Conference, opening tomorrow. The influential newspaper, which has always been friendly to the Zionist cause, suggests that a “small independent Jewish state” be created in Palestine under a partition scheme.

The paper insists that the British Government must come to an immediate decision with regard to Palestine. Any further delay, it says, may lead to a situation where Dr. Chaim Weizmann will find it hard to control the Zionist movement. At the same time, the Guardian emphasizes that outbreaks in Palestine would be disastrous to the Jewish cause and would present an embarrassing problem to the new Labor Government.

Only a solution guaranteed by Britain, Russia and the United States, and endorsed by the United Nations might be accepted by both the Jews and the Arabs, the paper says. Urging the government to find “a solution acceptable to the United Nations which will, at the same time, safeguard the Jewish home in Palestine and permit the immigration of at least a proportion of the Jews of Europe,” the editorial says: “It is becoming increasingly difficult to believe that this can be done in any other way except by partition and by the creat on of a small, but independent Jewish state.”

The paper foresees that the repeal of the White Paper will be opposed not only by the Arabs of Palestine, but by the Arab League. It nevertheless advises the new government to come to a decision on Palestine now. The delegates of the World Zionist Conference, it points out, have gathered in a mood of desperation and will turn to the Labor Government, being encouraged to do so by the many declarations with regard to Palestine made by the Labor Party when it was not in control of the government.

WEIZMANN BELIEVES PALESTINE WILL REMAIN OPEN TO JEWISH IMMIGRATION

“If it is natural for the Jews to base their hopes on these declarations, it is no less natural for the leaders of the Labor Party to see the difficulties in the fulfillment of these declarations now that they are in office,” the paper says. It also carries a statement issued by the Arab office in London opposing any change in the White Paper policy and declaring the Arabs readiness to recognize a spiritual and cultural Jewish home in Palestine, and to accept the Jews who are already living there, but demanding self-government leading to Arab independence. The abrogation of the White Paper would lead to further deterioration of Arab-Jewish relations and would seriously prejudice Arab-British relations, the statement threatens.

Dr. Chaim Weizmann, addressing a Youth Alyiah gathering today said: “The sands are running out. We have no more immigration certificates. But I firmly believe that the sign ‘No Jews Need Apply’ will not be put up over the gates of Palestine, and that we will be able to bring to Palestine more Jews, children as well as grown-ups.”