PARTITION OF PALESTINE WAS DENOUNCED AS A “CRAZY SCHEME” AND “LAMENTABLE ADMISSION” OF BRITAIN’S FAILURE TODAY BY DAVID LLOYD GEORGE, WARTIME PRIME MINISTER OF GREAT BRITAIN, IN AN ARTICLE PUBLISHED IN THE SUNDAY JOURNAL AND AMERICAN.
DECLARING THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT’S PROPOSAL WOULD “MUTILATE” THE JEWISH NATIONAL HOME AND LOWER BRITISH PRESTIGE, MR. LLOYD GEORGE SAID: “WHAT WILL SIXTEEN AND A HALF MILLION JEWS, DISPERSED OVER THE SURFACE OF THE GLOBE IN EVERY CONTINENT, THINK OF THIS PROPOSAL TO BREAK THE SOLEMN PLEDGE GIVEN THEM BY THE GREAT NATIONS IN RETURN FOR SERVICES PROMISED AND RENDERED?”
EVEN IF PARTITION WAS INEVITABLE, HE DECLARED, THE PROPOSED DIVISION IS UNINTELLIGENT AS “IT DOOMS LARGE TRACTS OF FERTILE LAND IN THE NORTH AND SOUTH TO DESOLATION.”
POINTING OUT THAT IN INDIA AND CANADA DIFFERENT RACES LIVE TOGETHER AND “SHARE THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF GOVERNMENT,” MR. LLOYD GEORGE ASKED: “WHY IS IT IMPOSSIBLE TO CONTEMPLATE SIMILAR CO-OPERATION OF RACES AND CREEDS IN PALESTINE?”
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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.
