Supreme Right

British Colonial Secretary Malcolm MacDonald last May presented to Parliament a White Paper that Jews angrily attacked as a betrayal of the pledge to maintain a Jewish Homeland in Palestine. The British guaranteed Palestine Arabs a permanent majority position in Palestine, with promises of ultimate independence. Jewish immigration was limited to 75,000 spread over the next five years, after which it will be prohibited.

Last week Secretary MacDonald again outraged the Zionists. Because of thousands of illegal immigrants, for a six-month period beginning next October no Jews will be permitted officially to enter Palestine. After that, resumption of immigration will "depend upon the circumstances prevailing"--i.e., upon whether the illegal immigration meanwhile stops.

One small steamer was last week permitted temporarily to put into Beirut, Lebanon, after a wave of suicide and disease among its 650 passengers. Two others were off the Lebanese coast. The ships were part of the fleet of vessels, mostly run by Rumanians and Greeks, that hovers continuously off the Palestine coast. Crowded miserably aboard them are hundreds of Jewish refugees from Poland, Germany, Rumania, Hungary and former Czecho-Slovakia. At night the vessels edge closer to the shore, watching for the signal lights that mean all is clear for the landing of their cargoes. Since April 1938 more than 15,000 Jewish refugees are estimated to have illegally entered Palestine in this way.

So far the British have found no way to stop the smuggling. Even if a boatload of refugees is captured, the authorities are helpless, for all identification papers have been destroyed and there is no country to which they can be deported. Moreover, Secretary MacDonald's retaliatory prohibition of legal immigration may even increase the smuggling of refugees by convincing even moderate Jews that it is morally justifiable.

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