November 16, 1938 The Palestine Deception of Great Britain

“QUICK ACTION SEEN

GUIANA IS STRESSED AS A SANCTUARY AS URGENT PLEA IS SENT TO U.S.

OFFICIALS DENOUNCE NAZIS

INSKIP DECRIES ‘APPALLING’ ACTS―CABINET AIDE PREDICTS THE OVERTHROW OF DICTATORS”

“The British Cabinet is understood to have given tentative approval today to a plan for opening thinly settled parts of the British colonial empire as a sanctuary for some of the oppressed Jews and other “non-Aryans” in Germany.

The plan which calls for financial help from United States citizens, now has been submitted to Washington as a matter of utmost urgency.

“Something Important” In View

Sir Thomas Inskip, Minister for the coordination of Defense, said in a speech tonight that it was Britain’s first duty to help the Jews, not only in this country but if possible in the Empire.

“I hope and believe that other nations will play their part,” he declared. “I have no desire to divide the German Government from the German people, but I find it very difficult to believe that the German people approve such appalling treatment of innocent people. We feel pity and sorrow for the Jews and shame that such things are possible.”

Netherlands Seeks Information

THE GOVERNMENTS OF FRANCE, BELGIUM, DENMARK AND SWITZERLAND HAVE INFORMED THE HAGUE THAT THEY ARE PLANNING NO NEW ACTION ON BEHALF OF REFUGEES, but the Netherlanders are still true to their centuries-old tradition of giving asylum to the oppressed. It is believed here that the creation of temporary training camps for refugees in Holland will be a great and essential help in the larger plan that was put before the British Cabinet today.

Specifically a scheme for colonizing British Guiana is in the forefront of the discussions in London at the moment, although it is not the only one that is being examined. From the British viewpoint, Jewish settlement in the uplands of British Guiana has many advantages, among them Guiana’s urgent need of labor and capital for development and her geographical situation under the sheltering arm of the United States Navy.

Climate Not of the Best

But climatically Guiana is not the most pleasant spot in Britain’s colonial empire; in the healthful upland areas the colony can take only a limited number of new settlers, perhaps 20,000 to 30,000. Experts here see no physical reason, however, why its rich resources of minerals and timber and its productive areas of sugar cane, coffee and rice cannot be developed by the same kind of pioneering effort that has made a desert blossom into orange groves in Palestine.

The same is believed to be true of Northern Rhodesia and other sparsely settled parts of the British Empire, both in colonies and dominions, that have been examined as possible homes for the Jews of Germany.

“Non-Aryans” Also Aided

The Earl of Selborne said that the time had come for deeds, not words, and that it would expose the British people to “the just charge of hypocrisy” if they did nothing but adopt resolutions of horror and sympathy.

“Surely,” he declared, “all the governments and Parliaments of the British Empire should greatly dare and do a great thing―to suspend all this long-drawn-out paraphernalia of government visas in Berlin and Vienna. Let us not wait until a plan is agreed upon by all the governments and Parliaments of the empire. If we do that then the Jews will all be dead before the time comes.”

Finally the Archbishop of Canterbury expressed the hope that “the disappointing results of the Evian conference” would not be allowed to remain, but that “our own government and all others will address themselves to meeting this unprecedented situation.”

“Everything that is happening now quickens my desire,” the Archbishop said, “that whatever policy in … Palestine may be ultimately adopted, there will be some means of assuring the Jewish race throughout the world that there is one spot where they are not regarded as outcasts and aliens.”

Afterward an appeal for Christian refugees from Germany was issued jointly by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Cardinal Hinsley, James Black, Moderator of the Church of Scotland, and Robert Bond, Moderator of the Federal Council of Evangelical Free Churches of England.

Source: New York Times. November 17, 1938.