A spokesman for the Colonial Office denied categorically yesterday that the British Government had offered the Jewish Agency a partition scheme which the Agency accepted. A report to that effect was published here on Friday in the Jewish Standard. The story was denied the same day by a Jewish Agency spokesman in Jerusalem.
The statement by the Colonial Office said: It is quite impossible that such an arrangement could have been made. That we should be unaware of such an offer and its acceptance is impossible.”
Earlier, a Foreign Office spokesman confirmed that arrangements had been made for discussions between Secretary of State James F. Byrnes and Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin on Palestine. He would not, however, reveal whether the talks had begun yet.
The Sunday Times today quotes “reliable Jewish sources in Jerusalem” as stating that the Haganah has approached the extremist organizations urging them to suspend all activities for the next two months to facilitate the negotiations between Jewish lead- ers and the British Government. It says that Jewish circles believe that there is a slight possibility the Irgun and the Sternists may accept the proposal to save their faces in light of the growing opposition to them within the Jewish community.
The inaccuracy of reports appearing in the British press during the recent “scare” campaign concerning the alleged entrance into England of Jewish extremists from Palestine was exposed today when it was established that at least one of them was a complete fabrication. The report said that 1,500 Jews from the Middle East arrived at Liverpool on the Ascania and were subjected to exhaustive questioning and searches by Scotland Yard detectives. Actually only 29 Jews arrived on the ship and none of them were subjected to any procedure other than the usual custom control, it is reported from Liverpool. (The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported on Nov. 17 that 29 Jews arrived at Liverpool and that nothing suspicious was found on them.)
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.
