840.48 Refugees/2358
The British Embassy to the Department of State
Memorandum
The problem of illegal immigration into Palestine has given a great deal of trouble in the past especially since the publication of His Majesty’s Government’s statement of policy in May, 1939, which set a definite limit of 75,000 to further Jewish immigration except with Arab consent. The Zionists have never accepted this decision and ignoring the law of Palestine which regulates immigration by a system of half-yearly quotas, extreme Zionist organizations in Central Europe have organized the transport of considerable numbers of Jews of all ages and both sexes without immigration certificates to the shores of Palestine. These immigrants arrive in unseaworthy vessels generally chartered from Greek shipowners and, if not intercepted and brought into Haifa, hover off the coast at a distance of anything [Page 851] up to 50 miles and disembark their passengers at night in small boats which are left to make their way to the shore. The difficulty of detecting every small boat load by night has led the Palestine Government to pass legislation enabling it to seize any ships carrying prospective illegal immigrants whether they are inside Palestine territorial waters or not. Such ships have hitherto been brought into Haifa harbour, the captain and crew sentenced to long term imprisonment and ships confiscated. There has been no alternative but to release Jewish passengers after necessary period of quarantine and (so far as accommodation is available) of internment to become a burden on the Jewish community, deducting their numbers from the next six months quota.
This procedure, though unsatisfactory, served the purpose before the outbreak of war and in fact had a considerable deterrent effect. Lately, however, the problem has again become acute and under war conditions assumes a graver aspect. There are indications that the Axis powers are encouraging influx of Jews to Palestine (giving them choice of embarking on a ship for Palestine or remaining in a concentration camp) their object being not only to embarrass His Majesty’s Government by inflaming Arab sentiment, but to introduce enemy agents into Palestine and the Middle East. To admit into Palestine any further shiploads of illegal immigrants and to allow the law of Palestine to be openly flouted would undoubtedly involve the risk of serious trouble with the Arabs and jeopardize our whole military position in the Middle East.
The Secretary of State for the Colonies has therefore approved strongly the recommendation of the High Commissioner for Palestine that the two shiploads (totalling one thousand seven hundred and seventy) who have already arrived at Haifa should be refused admission to Palestine and should be shipped at the earliest possible moment to Mauritius where it is hoped that provisions can be made for their detention during the period of the war. A further ship carrying Jewish “refugees” has since arrived off Cyprus, having run out of fuel, provisions and water, and unless (as is unlikely) she can be induced or compelled to proceed elsewhere it will be necessary to take her to Haifa and there to arrange for the deportation of the passengers. It is hoped that when it has been made widely known that illegal immigrants will no longer be admitted into Palestine but will be sent abroad for detention, the game will be found to be not worth the candle even with the Axis’ encouragement, and traffic will cease; but we must allow for the possibility of having to accommodate anything up to three thousand Jews apart from those who are destined for Mauritius.
[Page 852]The Jews are already making a great grievance about the decision to refuse these people admission into Palestine. They enlarge upon the inhuman turning away of these “refugees from Nazi oppression”; they claim, without foundation, that every Jew has a right to enter Palestine as his homeland and they profess complete disregard to the immigration law of Palestine. They point out that the White Paper of 1939 itself provides for the admission into Palestine of twenty-five thousand refugees (included in the total of seventy-five thousand) but they ignore the proviso that these refugees are only to be admitted when the High Commissioner is satisfied that their maintenance can be assured.