EXTRACTS FROM THE WHITE PAPER, 1939
By 1939 it was clear that the Jews of Germany were under threat of extermination by the Nazi regime. With the doors of the world effectively closed to Jews at the 1938 Evian Conference on Refugees, hundreds of thousands sought refuge in British Palestine. Meanwhile the British Mandatory authorities faced violent rioting by an Arab population fiercely opposed to Jewish immigration.

A Round Table Conference of British, Arab and Jewish representatives met in London in February 1939. The German Jewish community sent a message, “It is a question of life and death. It is inconceivable that Britain will sacrifice the German Jews.” The extracts below are from the official statement of government policy, the ‘White Paper’, which followed the London Conference.

IMMIGRATION
Under Article 6 of the Mandate, the Administration of Palestine, “while ensuring that the rights and position of other sections of the population are not prejudiced,” is required to “facilitate Jewish immigration under suitable conditions.” Beyond this, the extent to which Jewish immigration into Palestine is to be permitted is nowhere defined in the Mandate…

In practice, from [1922] onwards until recent times, the economic absorptive capacity of the country has been treated as the sole limiting factor, and in the letter which Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, as Prime Minister, sent to Dr. Weizmann in February 1931 it was laid down as a matter of policy that economic absorptive capacity was the sole criterion.
This interpretation has been supported by resolutions of the Permanent Mandates Commission. But His Majesty’s Government do not read either the Statement of Policy of 1922 or the letter of 1931 as implying that the Mandate requires them, for all time and in all circumstances, to facilitate the immigration of Jews into Palestine subject only to consideration of the country’s economic absorptive capacity…

The methods employed by Arab terrorists against fellow-Arab and Jews alike must receive unqualified condemnation. But it cannot be denied that fear of indefinite Jewish immigration is widespread amongst the Arab population and that this fear has made possible disturbances which have given a serious setback to economic progress, depleted the Palestine exchequer, rendered life and property insecure, and produced a bitterness between the Arab and Jewish populations which is deplorable between citizens of the same country… His Majesty’s Government cannot take the view that either their obligations under the Mandate, or considerations of common sense and justice, require that they should ignore these circumstances in framing immigration policy…
It has been urged that all further Jewish immigration into Palestine should be stopped forthwith. His Majesty’s Government cannot accept such a proposal…Above all, His Majesty’s Government are conscious of the present unhappy plight of large numbers of Jews who seek a refuge from certain European countries, and they believe that Palestine can and should make a further contribution to the solution of this pressing world problem.

In all these circumstances, they believe that they will be acting consistently with their Mandatory obligations to both Arabs and Jews, and in the manner best calculated to serve the interests of the whole people of Palestine, by adopting the following proposals regarding immigration…

Jewish immigration during the next five years will be at a rate…as from the beginning of April this year, of some 75,000 immigrants over the next five years…

His Majesty’s Government are determined to check illegal immigration, and further preventive measures are being adopted. The numbers of any Jewish illegal immigrants who, despite these measures, may succeed in coming into the country and cannot be deported will be deducted from the yearly quotas…

His Majesty’s Government are satisfied that, when the immigration over five years which is now contemplated has taken place, they will not be justified in facilitating, nor will they be under any obligation to facilitate, the further development of the Jewish National Home by immigration regardless of the wishes of the Arab population.”

Click here to see the full text of the White Paper.
The permission of the Avalon Project of Yale University to publish the above extracts is acknowledged.