British Board of Jewish Deputies Opposes Palestine Homeland Curb; Roosevelt to Act

The Board of Deputies of British Jews, at its first Fall session, today adopted a resolution, with none dissenting, which “supports the Jewish Agency in declaring its opposition to any policy which may envisage either artificial restrictions on Jewish immigration to Palestine or relegation of the Jews in Palestine to the status of a minority.”

British Jewry’s representative body recorded its conviction that a permanent settlement of the Palestine problem should be based on “the historic connection of the Jews with Palestine, a right internationally guaranteed to the Jewish people, embodied in the mandate and accepted by Britain as a sacred trust.” Pointing to the desperate need of persecuted Jewish masses in Europe, a resolution expressed confidence that a policy of suppressing terrorism, fully and rapidly implemented, was the way by which a road to enduring Arab-Jewish cooperation could be paved.

Dr. Israel Feldman, chairman of the board’s Palestine committee, in offering the resolutions, stressed the example of American Jewry’s action in connection with the Palestine crisis. “We have every reason to believe that the steps taken by American Jewry were not only steps in the right direction, but also at the right time,” he said.

Sir Robert Waley Cohen, vice-president of the board, denied that unity could be achieved by “asking the board to endorse and say amen to whatever the Zionist Organization said.” He criticized the resolutions as conveying “an utterly inadequate expression of the great, constructive achievements which the Jews are ready and able to contribute to Palestine.” He suggested an appeal to the British Government to convene in London a meeting of representatives of all forces of good will from all national groups in Palestine on the ground that no fundamental Jewish-Arab antagonism existed.

Lionel Cohen, another vice-president, supported Waley Cohen, demanding a constructive suggestion for future action. Leonard G. Montefiore protested against making the board “an annex and satellite of the Zionist Organization.”