"Jewry Stands Aghast!"

In a cozy, book-filled house at Passfield Corner, Liphook, Hampshire live Sidney and Beatrice Webb, foremost economists of the British Labor Party. Their telephone number is "Passfield 6," telegraphic address "Passfield," and he is the First Baron Passfield of Passfield Corner. Last week the wrath of millions of Jews was loosed upon this spindly-shanked bee-bellied, goat-bearded little scholar. Reason: potent Lord Passfield in his official capacity as Secretary of State for the Colonies had, just restated the Palestinian policy of His Majesty's Government in these terms:

1) Jewish immigration to Palestine, which the MacDonald Government stopped last spring "temporarily" (TIME, June 16), to continue stopped.

2) Arab sales of land in Palestine to Jews to be under strict Government supervision, with the suggestion that Great Britain will discourage such sales.

3) A new advisory body to be set up, composed of the British High Commissioner and 22 representatives--ten appointed, twelve elected--forming a Legislative Council. If any Palestinian group shall abstain from electing its representatives they shall be appointed by the High Commissioner.

4) His Majesty's Government to maintain in Palestine the present armed force of two battalions of infantry, two squadrons of aircraft, four sections of armored cars, these being deemed sufficient to prevent the recurrence of such disorders as those in Palestine last year when Jews and Arabs lost a total of 241 lives (TIME, Aug. 26, 1929 et seq.).

It was points Nos. 1 & 2 which raised the furor.

Fear of Allah. Basis of the British Government's action was the special report on Palestine made by Sir John Hope Simpson and issued last week simultaneously with the Passfield Declaration.

Ordinarily such a report would have been issued in advance, allowed to "sink in," but there was a reason last week for Lord Passfield's abrupt action.

In London on Nov. 12 the MacDonald Government is scheduled to sit down with potent, brunet gentlemen to the momentous Indian Round Table Conference (see p. 20). Sixty-nine million Indians are Moslems. Most of their leaders fiercely suspect that British Governments over a period of years have been in a sort of white-man's-plot with the 172,000 Palestine Jews against the 750,000 Palestine Arabs, religious brothers of India's Moslems. Only recently, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem was in London, did his fiery best to put the fear of Allah into Great Britain's Christian Cabinet.

Moreover the report of Sir John Hope Simpson urged last week just such Action (i. e. halting of Jewish immigration to Palestine and acquisition of land there) as would tend to conciliate Moslems in Palestine, India and throughout the world.

Passfield Declaration. In the declaration which even his bitterest Jewish critics called "historic" last week Lord Passfield wrote in part:

"It is essential at the outset that His Majesty's Government should make it clear that they will not be moved by any pressure or threats . . . from pursuit of a policy which aims at promoting the interests of the inhabitants of Palestine, both Arabs and Jews, in a manner consistent with the obligations which the mandate imposes.

"It is the duty of the administration under the mandate, to insure that the position of 'other sections of the population' is not prejudiced by Jewish immigration.

"The Jewish settlers have had every advantage that capital, science and organization could give them. ... On the other hand, the Arab population, while lacking the advantages enjoyed by the Jewish settlers, has . . . increased rapidly, while the land available for its sustenance has decreased by about 250,000 acres. This area has passed into Jewish hands.

"It can now be definitely stated that at the present time and with the present methods of Arab cultivation there remains no margin of land available for agricultural settlement by new immigrants, with the exception of such undeveloped land as the various Jewish organizations hold in reserve.

"Clearly, if the immigration of Jews results in the prevention of Arabs obtaining work necessary for their maintenance, or if Jewish unemployment unfavorably affects the general labor position, it is the duty of the mandatory power to reduce or if necessary to suspend such immigration until the unemployed portion obtains work.

"So long as widespread suspicion exists as it does among the Arab population that their economic depression is due to excessive Jewish immigration, and so long as some grounds exist upon which this suspicion may be plausibly presented as well founded, there can be little hope of any improvement in the mutual relations of the two races. It is upon such improvement that the future peace and prosperity of Palestine must largely depend."

Palestine Reaction. In Jerusalem the venerable Rabbi Benzion Yedler entered his synagog weeping and lamenting, flung wide the doors of the Ark of the Covenant, grasped the Scrolls of the Law and cried: "Sad days have come upon Israel, but better days will follow!" Throughout the world thousands of rabbis did and spoke likewise, though not all were so optimistic. In Jerusalem potent Pinhas Rutenberg, Palestine's hydroelectric tycoon and chairman of the Jewish National Council, called upon the British High Commissioner. Sir John Robert Chancellor, bluntly told him that as an act of protest the Jewish community will abstain from voting for their representatives in the reorganized Palestine Government proposed by Lord Passfield. These representatives will therefore have to be appointed by the British High Commissioner.

In Palestine Arab circles it was hotly questioned whether the Passfield Declaration is really much of an advance toward the main Arab goal: a democratic Palestine Parliament similar to Irak's. In such a parliament Arabs would, of course, outnumber Jews more than four to one, would vote to remove the Jewish National Home from Palestine.

U. S. Reaction. Passionate, perhaps more passionate than that of their British brethren was the reaction of U. S. Jews. "The Jewish people stand aghast!" cried famed Rabbi Stephen Samuel Wise, and his colleague Rabbi Louis Israel Newman thundered: "England has risen to power as an empire, but empires which have sought to place their heel upon Judea have fallen, whatever heights they have achieved. England will find there is a Nemesis in persecution of Jewry!"

Jammed to overflowing, Manhattan's Mecca Temple rocked with thunderous mass cheers as Zionist Mordecai Danzis shouted: "If necessary we will recruit Jewish legions to reclaim Palestine! Tens of thousands will volunteer!"

In the name of 5,000 U. S. Jewish veterans a cablegram was despatched to Field-Marshal Viscount Allenby: "Thirteen years ago we stood on the battlefields of Palestine under your leadership, prepared to sacrifice our lives for the redemption of the Holy Land. In those days we learned to look up to you for your integrity and high sense of honor. In this hour of crisis your soldiers appeal to you to prevail upon your fellow British citizens to resist this latest attempt to impugn British honor and to discredit the British sense of fair play and justice."

Numerous U. S. political candidates voiced their indignation last week, some telegraphing President Hoover. Meeting at Washington, D. C. the American Jewish Congress resolved censure of the Passfield Declaration, and prominent Jews urged the Hoover Administration to protest officially.

Sorely hit was Philanthropist Felix M. Warburg, who has put more than $1,000,000 into the Jewish National Home. With quiet dignity he announced that Lord Passfield had "misled" him. He declared: "So complete was our confidence and faith in the British Government that millions of pounds were poured into Palestine." He resigned in protest his Chairmanship of the Administrative Committee of the Jewish Agency.

British Reaction. In London famed Dr. Chaim Weizmann, leader for the past 13 years of the World Zionist Organization, announced that he had resigned in protest his presidency of that organization and of the Jewish Agency. Presently he said, hopefully:

"The Passfield Declaration is an unfortunate document, more unfortunate in impression than in actual wording."

With millions of Jews under the impression that the sale of land to Jews in Palestine would be absolutely forbidden, Dr. Weizmann added: "The Government has not definitely prohibited the purchase of land but has revealed its intention of sterilizing our work by administrative action and by placing obstacles in the way of every legitimate effort we make."

Zionist efforts will be redoubled at an emergency meeting of the World Zionist Actions Committee planned for November 4 in London. To cheer President Weizmann came a fighting letter from Great Britain's richest Jewish industrialist, Baron Melchett, who also resigned his chairmanships of the Council and Political Committee of the Jewish Agency. Calling the Passfield Declaration a "grotesque travesty ... an insult to the intelligence of Jewry," he wrote with cold fury: "It is impossible to discover what rights the Jews in or out of Palestine are to have in the future, or in what way they can be made to feel they have any rights at all in that country."

Balfour Declaration. Efforts to turn Jewish resentment against Laborite Macdonald into votes for the Opposition were feverishly made by Conservative Stanley Baldwin and Liberal David Lloyd George. The Welshman, whose name is a byword for political trickery, who before now has turned to rich Jews for campaign cash, discovered last week that "Great Britain's honor will be tarnished [by the Passfield Declaration]. . . . Nay, she is to be held up throughout the world as 'perfidious Albion!' "

More dignified, if no less a scheme to catch Jewish votes and cash, was Conservative Leader Stanley Baldwin's move. With two members of his last Cabinet, Sir Austen Chamberlain (Foreign Affairs) and Lieut.-Colonel Leopold Stennett Amery who had charge of Palestine, he wrote a letter to the Times. Together these three Conservative musketeers hurled a charge also flung by many a Jew last week. They declared that the Passfield Declaration violates the Balfour Declaration of 1917 under which Jews have been pushing on with their National Home in Palestine.

Best way to decide the merits of this charge is actually to read the Balfour Declaration which few people did last week. It was issued Nov. 2, 1917 in the form of a personal letter signed by the then British Foreign Secretary, Mr. Arthur James (later Lord) Balfour. Text:

"Dear Lord Rothschild--I have much pleasure in conveying to you on behalf of His Majesty's Government the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations, which has been submitted to and approved by the Cabinet: 'His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.' . . ."

British Laborites contended last week that, in the light of the phrases italicized above, they believe that the Passfield Declaration does not in any way violate the Balfour Declaration which was incorporated practically verbatim into the Palestine Mandate, today the organic law of the land.

Rothermere Switch. Most curious event of the week was a switch by Viscount Rothermere, never before a supporter of Scot MacDonald, to the latter's side of the Palestine squabble. Cried the Rothermere Daily Mail (world's largest English language circulation) : "Mr. Baldwin has wrecklessly denounced the Labor Government for its one sensible act. . . . He [Baldwin] seems insanely eager to saddle Great Britain with the enormously costly and difficult task of dragooning the population of Palestine into acceptance of the Zionist scheme which they detest and to which they will submit only so long as they are held down by British bayonets."

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