Chairman. not long ago I introduced a resolution. House Resolution 418. which provided for the reaffirmance of the action of the Sixtyseventh Congress in 1922. when it placed itself on record as favoring the establishment of a national home in Palestine for the Jews. This original action was in substantiation of the Balfour Declaration. wherein Britain committed itself to the identical policy. and the later mandate of the League of Nations. signed by 72 nations. which entrusted Britain with the encouragement of Jewish immigration into Palestine. their close settlement of its lands. and the establishment there of a Jewish national home.. Implicit in the Balfour Declaration and the mandate was the plan that the Jews should eventually form in Palestine a nation or commonwealth. The resolution which I presented provided expressly for a Jewish commonwealth. This policy was at that time likewise agreeable to the Arabs in their first gratitude at being themselves freed from Turkish rule. The resolution of the Sixtyseventh Congress was later fortified by a convention or treaty between the United States -and Britain wherein the United States agreed to the mandate. and Britain pledged itself not to change its terms without our consent. In 1939 the white paper was published by Britain without the consent of the League or of our country. the effect of. which was the cutting off of immigration into Palestine and the prohibition of the further purchase by the Jews of Palestine lands. This action was assailed in Britain by many of its most prominent leaders. and was condemned by the mandates commission of the League of Nations. In the meantime. the persecutions of Hitler had grown steadily more brutal and murderous. both in Germany and the conquered countries. until it is doubtful today whether any considerable number of European Jews will survive.
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immigration