§ 44. Mr. Manderasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies why, in view of the fact that the Royal Commission on Palestine recommended that a political high level of Jewish immigration should be fixed for the next five years at 12,000 per annum as an alternative to the policy of partition, the British Government have adopted it in addition to partition; and why this departure from the recommendations of the Royal Commission was made?
§ Mr. Ormsby-GoreI cannot accept the hon. Member's suggestion that His Majesty's Government have adopted the recommendation of the Royal Commission for a "political high level" of Jewish immigration for the next five years. The recommendation of the Royal Commission in favour of such a proposal envisaged the indefinite continuance of the existing Mandate, and the Commission made no recommendation for dealing with immigration during the immediate interim period between publication of the report 901 and final agreement to terminate the Mandate and establish a treaty system on a basis of the tripartite division of the country. As a new labour immigration schedule was due in August, an immediate decision was required, and His Majesty's Government felt justified in limiting, as a purely interim measure, Jewish immigration in all categories to a total of 8,000 for the eight-months period August, 1937, to March, 1938. As regards the arrangements to be made after that date, I cannot do better than quote from the statement made by my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, at the last session of the Council of the League of Nations. He said;
The Permanent Mandates Commission have drawn attention to the reduction of Jewish immigration to a total of 8,000 persons in the next eight months. That, as the Commission recognised, is a purely temporary measure designed to meet temporary and exceptional conditions….What is to happen when the period of eight months is over, that is to say, after the 31st March, 1938, must necessarily depend upon the progress made in the meanwhile with the partition scheme. If the scheme has by that time reached a stage of provisional acceptance, the whole question of immigration as affecting both the Arab and the Jewish areas will clearly have to be considered on a fresh basis.
§ Mr. ManderIs it not the fact that certain ordinances have recently been published altering the system of immigration?
§ Mr. Ormsby-GoreYes, Sir, an ordinance has been approved to implement the decision announced by me in this House last July.
§ Mr. ManderDo I understand that this is only temporary?
§ Mr. Ormsby-GoreCertainly.
§ Mr. KirkwoodIs it the case that, say a Jewish doctor wishes to go to Palestine, before he can get into Palestine he has to be prepared to put down £1,000?
§ Mr. Ormsby-GoreYes, Sir, under the principle of regulation by economic absorptive capacity. Anybody with £1,000 would be allowed in, but there are various categories. There is always the principle of economic absorptive capacity, and there are certain categories, for example, capitalists, labour immigrants, dependants and the like, and 902 whether the doctor would have been admitted or not depends upon which category he was in.
§ Mr. KirkwoodI have got the reply from the Home Office that if my friend the doctor wishes to get into Palestine, he has to be prepared to put down i,000. He has no country. He cannot get back to his native land, because he is a Jew. He has been educated as Glasgow University, but he is without any country.
§ Mr. Ormsby-GoreI know perfectly well that, since the recent trouble in Central Europe, there have been, from Germany and Poland, a very large number of Jewish doctors who have already become established in Palestine, and to establish more doctors in Palestine might only deprive the present Jewish doctors of a chance of making a living.
§ Colonel WedgwoodIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that this departure of limiting the number of Jews, not by economic absorptive capacity, but by the act of this Government, is regarded by the Jews in Palestine, and by those who approved of the Mandate of this country, as being a deliberate breach of the Mandate?
§ Mr. Ormsby-GoreWe have always denied that this is any breach of the Mandate I know perfectly well that the Jews wish to be back under the old economic absorptive capacity system. As I made perfectly clear in this House, for the interim period, that is, for eight months, we decided to adopt this arbitrary figure.