Further editorials in American newspapers on the Palestine White Paper indicate that the press, generally, intepets the decision as dictated by the international situation rather than by considerations of fairness and doubts that the new policy affords a final solution of the problem.
Excerpts from editorials follow:
Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal: “The solution of the Palestine problem by the British Government is patently an act of expediency. It is motivated not so much by justice and equity as the realities of the situation in the Mediterranean basin.”
Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch: “Great Britain’s decision….can only be regarded as a cold blooded piece of power politics. The Chamberlain Government has evidently decided that the Arabs are in a position to do the British Empire more damage in the Near East than the Jews.”
Washington (D.C.) Post (commentary by Barnet Nover): “Palestine is the latest part of the world to feel the impact of the Munich mentality….the latest White Paper on Palestine must be regarded as a repudiation of pledges voluntarily undertaken and no less binding because there are real difficulties in the way of fulfillment.”
Des Moines (I.) Register: “…the really big menace to the British Government appears to be the expansion of Nazi-Fascist influence, and…London will adjust its policies in every way it deems reasonable to obstruct that menace.”
Milwaukee (Wis.) Journal: “It is a reasonable prediction that the British statement will either receive new interpretation to make it mean less than it says or that the policy it announces will be modified. But ‘when’ and ‘how’ are questions tied up with the great question whether the world is going forward or backward.”
St. Louis (Mo.) Globe-Democrat: “…political expediency can scarcely excuse a callous treatment of the Jews which is justifiably resented by them the world over. In appeasing the Arabs at the expense of the Jews Britain has not played exactly cricket.”
Birmingham (Ala.) News: “It is deeply regrettable that some other way could not be found out of the difficult problem than that of limiting Jews to a definite minority status in their land of Moses and Abraham. England and the world may regret the day that a limitation was set upon Jewish immigration to Palestine.”
Los Angeles (Calif.) Times:”…Britain appears motivated more by the needs of her war preparation program than by a sense of justice to the hapless Jews…The vigorous opposition which Jewry will offer at both places (London and Geneva) and before the World Court may bring about a fairer settlement. It is to be hoped so.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
