Sta,—Mrs. Dugdale's article on "Lord Balfour and the Jews" is
full ol controversial statements. It ends with one which is the most con- troversial of all, but which is made again and again by Zionists. It is (in Mrs. Dugdale's own words) that Palestine is "the one and only country able and willing to absorb that living remnant of the People of the Book."
What is meant by the words "and willing " ? That the Jews already in Palestine want more Jews to go there? If that is all, it is probably true: but Zionists should make this clear. For it is not probably but certainly true that the great majority of the inhabitants of Palestine are not only not " willing " to receive more Jews but resent their coming with such intensity as to have brought their cota:try to a state of civil war rather than tolerate it.
This civil war has been hushed for a time, as both Arabs and Jews have recognised in Hitler the worst enemy of all: but it is most dangerously misleading to think or to speak of Palestine as a land willing to admit more Jews. Mrs. Dugdale may think it right to force the majority of the populaton to submit—if that is possible—but she must not attempt to disguise the process by suggesting that anything but naked
force will serve.—Yours, &c., MAUDE ROYDEN. Nestlewood, Bayley's Hill, Sevenoaks, Kent.
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