THE BALFOUR DECLARATION
ut,—While I hold no brief for the Republican Party, your editorial rnicism of the "Palestine" plank in its platform seems to me unjustified, nd your use of such harsh epithets as "a remarkable indiscretion" d "extraordinary distortion" uncalled for. If the Balfour Declaration id not mean that Jews who wished to do so could go to Palestine ithout let or hindrance, what did it mean? Every unbiased person understands the Declaration in the same sense as the late C. P. Scott, ho wrote on the day of its publication, November loth, 1917, in the Manchester Guardian, as follows:
"What it means is that, assuming our military successes to be con- nued and the whole of Palestine brought securely under our control, then at the conclusion of peace our deliberate policy will be to encourage in every way in our power Jewish immigration, to give full security, d no doubt a large measure of local autonomy, to the Jewish immigrants, ith a view to the ultimate establishment of a Jewish State."
Almost every journal in the country hailed and understood the pro- nouncement in the same sense. If further proof were needed that restriction of immigration is a flagrant breach of the Balfour Declaration let me quote our Prime Minister on this very point. Speaking in the House of Commons, on the White Paper proposal to restrict immigration and land purchase, he said, "There is the breach, there is the violation of the pledge, there is the abandonment of the Balfour Declaration. . . . This is another Munich." In the circumstances you will admit that the Republican Party can hardly be accused of " indiscretion " and "distortion" for adopting the British Prime Minister's point of view.
[The Balfour Declaration is as follows:
"His Majesty's t 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."—En., The Spectator.]
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