867N.01/1633
The Chargé in the United Kingdom (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 1.]
Sir: Referring to the Embassy’s despatch No. 2745 of May 25, 1939 reporting that Parliament had approved on May 23 the Government’s new policy for Palestine as embodied in a White Paper of May 17, 1939, I have the honor to report that, in a further debate on this question held on July 20, Opposition Leaders attacked the Government’s policy and took exception to the recent decision to suspend controlled immigration into Palestine for the next six months’ quota period and objected to the procedure which the Government is following in putting the policy into effect.
In voicing the Labor Party’s opposition to the Colonial Secretary’s pronouncement of July 15, suspending immigration, reported in despatch No. 3037 of July 15, 1939,8 Mr. Williams said: [Page 794]
“As I see it, the simple explanation of the Minister’s action is that Government in Palestine has completely broken down. If there was moral or legal right for it, it has broken down, and the Minister himself is the first to acknowledge that by his latest decree…”9
“I want to say clearly so that I shall not be misunderstood that we all recognise that Palestine cannot be a home for all the 20,000,000 Jews in the world. We recognise that Palestine cannot be a home perhaps for all would-be refugees in Europe. We do recognise, however, that Palestine is the one country capable of absorbing a considerable number of those who would like to emigrate, and yet apparently all recent events, which have been so important in the lives of the people in this as well as other countries, seem to have been ignored by His Majesty’s Government and by the Minister in particular when they have been thinking of their Palestine Policy.”
In reply to Mr. Williams and to other Opposition speakers on this point, Mr. MacDonald claimed that the suspension of immigration into Palestine was not a breach nor a breakdown of the Government’s policy. On the contrary, he stated, in view of the volume of illegal immigration it would have been a breach of that policy if the decision to suspend immigration had not been taken. He rejected the allegation which had been voiced that the Government was indifferent to the fate of Jewish refugees. He pointed out that some 8,000 illegal immigrants were either in or about to enter Palestine and that this figure was an approximate balance to the quota of illegal [legal?] immigrants contemplated for the next six months’ quota period.
Mr. MacDonald argued that the illegal traffic, which was represented as a spontaneous and altruistic desire to help refugees, had other motives behind it; that it was an organized movement to break the immigration law for the sake of breaking it and to circumvent the White Paper policy, thus causing grave consequences to political stability in Palestine. In this way, suspicion was being created among Arabs that the British Government was a party to a trick to rid itself of the White Paper policy with the result that distrust in British good faith was once more arising.
The second issue subject to Opposition attack involved the procedure being followed by the Government in putting the White Paper policy into effect, as reported in despatch No. 3038 of July 15, 1938,10 and involved particularly the availability to Parliament of the Report thereon of the Permanent Mandates Commission of the League of Nations. The Opposition Leaders expressed suspicion as to the Colonial Secretary’s reasons for refusal to disclose the Report, attributing his withholding it from examination by the House of Commons to some hidden motive. Mr. Williams, in fact, asserted that [Page 795] the Government had cooperated with the extreme Arab elements and that the more moderate elements in Palestine had been ignored with disastrous results to both Jew and Arab. Finally, he claimed that the House of Commons had the right to discuss every aspect of the Palestine question with the report of the Mandates Commission before it and that the League Council should postpone consideration of the White Paper until such debate had taken place.
In reply to criticism on this issue, Mr. MacDonald stated that the Mandates Commission was now completing its report and had asked for the comments of the British Government. He pointed out that the report could not be completed until those comments had been included and that it must remain a confidential document until published. In dealing with the apprehension of the House on this score, Mr. MacDonald stated:
“I give the House the assurance straight away that if the Council of the League were to reach a decision which would, in our view, involve the necessity of altering the Mandate, then we shall not take steps to bring about that alteration until this House has had another opportunity of considering the situation. I think that is quite proper, and I hope that statement will remove, at any rate, some of the misapprehensions and fears which are lodged in hon. Member’s minds.”
In concluding his argument in the debate, the Colonial Secretary ended with a plea for Jewish cooperation in reducing illegal immigration, emphasizing that Britain was and always had been the best friend of the Jews. The Government’s policy, he declared, was a fair fulfillment of promises to Jew and Arab and “the only honorable policy for this Government and this House to pursue is a policy which goes on, despite all the difficulties, trying to keep our faith with the people of that country”.
Copies of the entire debate as reproduced in Hansard on July 20, 1939, are enclosed herewith.11
Respectfully yours,