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Secret Papers
Reveal British Rejection of Plan
To Save 10,000 Children
Jewish Chronicle Reporter
Revelations of how the
British Government, to ap
pease the Arab States, reject
ed a request to send 10,000
Jewish children from Ger
many to Palestine are made in
the reports of British Cabinet
meetings of 1938, made avail
able for public inspection from
the week after the expiration
of the 30-year secrecy order.
Another major revelation is
how the British Government,
at the prompting of the then
Prime Minister, Mr. Neville
Chamberlain, turned down a
secret Nazi plan to allow Jew
ish emigration from Germany
in exchange for an interna
tional loan.
But several reports of Cab
inet meetings have been ex
cluded and are still not avail
able.
When the Cabinet met in
December, 1938, in the pres
ence of Mr. Chamberlain and
the Foreign Secretary, Lord
Halifax, they had before them
a request from the Jewish
Agency to allow 21,000 Jews,
including 10,000 children over
and above the ordinary quota,
to enter Palestine.
The Colonial Secretary, Mr.
Malcolmn MacDonald, told the
Cabinet that there could be no
question of allowing adults to
enter Palestine. But the prob
lem of children was more dif
ficult, as there Were homes
available for them in Palestine
and they would be received
there without any injury to
anyone’s interest.
CONSIDERABLE RISK
But, he added, there were
other points to be considered.
The High Commissioner in
Jerusalem and the British rep
resentatives in the neighbour
ing Arab States had said that
if these 10,000 children were
allowed into Palestine, there
would be the considerable risk
that the Palestine Arabs would
not attend the London confer
ence on Palestine being con
vened by the British Govern
ment.
Dr. Chaim Weizmann, the
Colonial Secretary told the
Cabinet, threatened that if the
Jewish Agency demand were
refused, the Agency would
not attend the conference.
Mr. MacDonald then sug
gested that ' the Government
should allow the immigration
of Jewish children to Britain,
provided guarantees could be
given for their maintenance.
'It was also suggested that it
Southern Israelite
might be necessary to make a
further concession to avoid
violent conflict with the Jews
in Palestine.
Lord Halifax, a leading fig
ure in the appeasement policy
towards Hitler and Mussolini,
who showed an equal desire
not to affend the Arabs, re
marked that the Cabinet had
no alternative but to accept
the Colonial Secretary’s views.
“The fact must be faced,”
said Lord Halifax, “that it was
essential that we should reach
agreement with the Arabs
over the Palestine question. At
the same time it should be rec
ognised that the Palestine
problem was insoluble unless
it could be made part of a
bigger setting.
“It was imperative that we
should proceed as vigorously
as possible to consider the
larger problem of Jewish re
settlement as a whole.”
Finally, the Cabinet decided
not to grant the request to al
low 10,000 Jewish children into
Palestine “at present, but that
the matter was one which
should be discused at the Lon
don conference.”
For the first time, the secret
discussions in London with
Dr. Schacht, the Nazi German
Finance Minister, are reveal
ed. Dr. Schacht met in Lon
don members of the Inter-
Governmental Committtee on
Refugees, as well as Cabinet
Ministers and Mr. Chamber-
lain.
He brought a complicated
scheme to finance Jewish em
igration from Germony by an
international refugee loan to
be financed from the proceeds
of German exports to be paid
for by a trust fund of Reichs-
marqs established from the
refugee resources in Ger
many.
HITLER'S APPROVAL
He claimed that he himself
was against the Nazis’ anti-
Jewish policies. But he came
to Britain with the approval
of Hitler whom he saw be
fore leaving. The scheme,
however, did not find approval
in Britain.
One Minister also told the
Cabinet that he had asked
leading Jews in Britain for
their opinion and they had
said it would be wrong to
grant concessions at the ex
pense of the British taxpayer.
So one more schemfe .which
might have saved many Ger
man Jews was rejected.
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