Declaring that “we are fighting the Jews (in Palestine) in order to give the country to the Arabs,” former Prime Minister Winston Churchill last night bitterly attacked British policy in the Holy Land, contrasting it with India.
The attack came in a speech at Wanstead, which is part of his constituency, in which he criticized the government for giving India its freedom. “There are four times as many troops in Palestine as in India,” Churchill said. “We must carry on this squalid war of terrorism. We are fighting the Jews in order to give the country to the Arabs.
“We have worked safely and done our best in Palestine but it has not a twentieth part of the importance of India to us and is an immense source of expense and worry and is bringing upon us a great deal of disapprobation from many countries throughout the world by our maladministration of the whole problem. I would ask you to consider for yourselves whether there is any possible explanation except that stupidity, ineptitude and incompetence which is exhibited by the Government to an extent which I have never seen in any previous administration.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.