[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—I agree with Dr.
Elkelas that the solution of the Jewish problem, or one solution, lies in the formation of an autonomous Jewish State. Although the Jews will always look towards Zion as their National Home, it does not now seem possible to found a fully autonomous Jewish State on an adequate scale in Palestine, nor were we ever specifically committed to that. But there seems no reason why, once the future of the National Home is assured in friendly relation with its Arab neighbours, daughter settlements should not be formed elsewhere in the Empire or the world, looking to Palestine as the mother-colony ; and if one of these settlements could become a completely autonomous Jewish State, then Jewish aspirations, both religious and temporal, would at last be realised, though not in one and the same land.
And where is this country, conforming with the three con- ditions suggested by Dr. Elkelas, to be found ? The conditions are that it should be practically uninhabited, that it should be " for sale," and that it should be suitable for agricultural settlement. May I indicate a possibility, which if practicable and acceptable, should prove an almost ideal solution,? We have heard much of an area of about to,000 square miles in British Guiana, South America, but we have heard nothing of the almost equal area constituted by British Honduras in Central America. British Honduras has roughly the area of Wales, that is, it is practically the size of Palestine, and indeed. is almost the same shape reversed, the coastline facing east instead of west. It has been a Crown Colony for over zoo years, The official description in the Colonial Office List shows that it has large areas eminently suited for cultivation, and indeed its crying need today is for agricultural settlement. The population, largely native, is only some 56,000, about equal to a London suburb or a small provincial town. Formerly it lacked roads, but many of these have now been built with the aid of the Colonial Development. Fund, and the colony is " ripe for development." The only vested interest is the Timber Trust. Being situated on the American continent, and indeed not far from the Panama Canal, it obviously comes within the scope of the Monroe Doctrine and the declaration of the Lima Con- ference. It would be difficult to set up another State in the middle of British Guiana but British Honduras already consti-, tutes such a State.
Why should not the British Government.transfer the adminis- tration of this colony to responsible Jewish authorities for development as a Jewish State under the joint protection and guarantee of Great Britain and the United States of America ? There are here no hostile people, no international complications. If we in one sense lost a small territory which has always been rather the Cinderella of the Colonial Empire, we should in another sense gain a vigorous State which would be proud to be associated with the British Commonwealth and the United States. We should have shown the world another example of practical co-operation between the great English-speaking nations, forging another link between them, and at the same time have earned the lasting gratitude and friendship of the Jewish
race.-:-Yours faithfully, W. E. SIMNETT. 27 Kew Gardens Road, Kew, Surrey.
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