JEWS & ARABS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 February 1939, Page 5

JEWS & ARABS

PALESTINE CONFERENCE OPENED MOSLEMS REFUSE TO SIT WITH JEWS. DISCUSSIONS WITH SEPARATE SECTIONS. By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright. (Received This Day, 10.30 a.m.) LONDON, February 7. One of the strangest conferences ever held opened in the picture gallery of St James Palace, when the Prime Minister, Mr Neville Chamberlain, received the Moslem delegates io the Palestine conference, as the Arabs declined to sit at the same table with the Jews and vice versa. Mr Chamberlain later received the Jews in the banqueting room, on the opposite side of the Palace. Mr Chamberlain, who was accompanied by Viscount Halifax and Mr Malcolm MacDonald, said there would be full freedom in the discussions and Britain would not offer her views until the Arabs and the Jews had an opportunity of separately putting their cases. He said: “We all are specially attached to Palestine and fervently hope that peace and prosperity may soon be restored.” In contrast to the Arabs, who were stately figures in silken robes, white headdresses and ceremonial daggers with jewelled hilts, the Jews, headed by Dr Weizmann, wore morning dress or lounge suits.

Mr Chamberlain praised the discipline and restraint shown by the Jewish community during a period of extreme difficulty and danger in Palestine.

The presentation of the Arab case has been postponed owing to the absence of the National Defence Party’s delegates, who thus far have been unable to reconcile their differences with the main Palestine Arab delegation. The Government has announced that, if agreement is found to be impossible, separate consultations will be held with the Defence Party.