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British and Jewish Representatives Meet Today on Palestine; Will Name Joint Body

October 8, 1946
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The informal talks between the British Government and leaders of the Jewish Agency with regard to Jewish participation in the conference on Palestine, which has been recessed to Dec. 16, will resume today. Dr. Weizmann will head the delegation of the Jewish Agency.

It is expected that as a result of tomorrow’s meeting, a committee will be nominated to discuss specific Jewish proposals. The committee, it is believed, will be composed of two British and two Jewish representatives.

It was learned here authoritatively that Prime Minister Clement Attlee has received no reply to the letter which he sent over the week-end to President Truman in answer to the latter’s statement last Friday calling for immediate and substantial Jewish immigration to Palestine. Meanwhile, the London press this morning continued to attack President Truman for his statement.

The Times stated: “President Truman’s latest pronouncement on Palestine affords further evidence of his sympathy with the idea of certain Jewish groups exercising great influence upon public opinion in the United States at a time when public issues are about to be brought to the test of a Congressional election.

“Last Thursday’s statement from the White House may well compel people in Britain as well as in the Arab countries to the reluctant conclusion that no solution of the Palestine question will satisfy the President unless it goes the whole way to meet Jewish claims. His present intervention, primarily timed, no doubt, as a reassurance to Jewish citizens of the United States, comes at a moment when it may easily endanger the efforts now being made to promote understanding between Jews and Arabs as well as the negotiations with the Jewish Agency designed to bring the Jewish case before the conference when it reassembles in December.”

The Daily Telegraph said: “The immediate consequence is to worsen the more favorable atmosphere that had been created. One thing is clear. Any endeavor to carry through the President’s policy to admit immediately 100,000 Jews would destroy all hope of peace in Palestine.

“There can be no disposition in Great Britain to belittle American interest in the Palestine problem, but until the United States are ready to share in full the responsibilities that an imposed settlement must involve nothing but harm can be done by pronouncements that exasperate Arab sentiment and jeopardize all negotiation. If in the end, as now seems even more probable, the British Government must decide on a course and enforce it, the full cooperation of the United States, which has already been sought, would be more than welcome.”

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