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south of here which is said to be similar. It has a fertile, deep soil, good rainfall and invigorating climate, and is largely a plateau region of approximately 5,000 feet elevation. The Italians have made this country much more accessible than formerly by building good roads to connect with the seaport of Masowa via Asmara, or via Addis Ababa to the seaport of Jibouti. Our Government and Army have full details of this whole country. I was in Abyssinia in 1926-27.

Brazil: The district about Barreiras in the Province of Minas Geraes is reported to be very sparsely populated and to be a fine flat brush country with an average elevation of 2,500 to 3,000 feet. The area is roughly 5° to 15° south latitude and 45° west longitude. The Brazilian Government could give complete information.

British Guiana: Roraima and vicinity, latitude 5° south, longitude 60° west. The great plateaus are 4,000 to 7,000 feet above sea level with broad, flat, fertile brush-covered river valleys at elevations of 1,700 feet and more. A road of 100 to 150 miles could be built from the neighborhood of Georgetown to give access to a huge area where only a few hundreds of people now live. There might be profits from mining diamonds and gold in this vicinity as well as from agricultural developments.

I am very much afraid that the Jewish interests in America as well as in the Near East will suffer if the proposed resolution is passed, especially during this present time of stress when we should be cooperating to the fullest with our allies and not raising controversial questions and resolutions.

I shall be glad to try to answer any questions to which I am competent to reply.

Dr. EATON. Mr. Twitchell, I would like to call attention to the fact that the object of this resolution is to permit the Jewish people to return to their ancestral homes in Palestine.

Mr. TWITCHELL. That is just it. From what I have seen there it is not a country that can support many other people, and I am afraid if they go there they will push some already there out and there may be bloodshed.

Dr. EATON. What we are anxious about is how to find out the actual conditions that will confront us in Palestine and how they can be solved best for everybody.

Mr. TWITCHELL. That is why I was calling attention to these other places where there is room.

I am an American. I am not of any one faith or the other. I want to see the whole thing done for the good of America and I foresee a good many ramifications that perhaps some people do not see. Chairman BLOOM. Proceed.

Mr. TWITCHELL. That is all.

Chairman BLOOм. Judge Kee?

Mr. KEE. Mr. Twitchell, you seem to fear that the passage of this resolution would cause trouble to Jews in other sections of the world, many other places, and I think you mentioned 100,000 in Iraq. Mr. TWITCHELL. Yes.

Mr. KEE. Do you think the Jews can be given any more trouble than they are already in?

Mr. TWITCHELL. Yes, indeed, in Yemen and Iraq, they have been there for centuries and centuries and they are well treated, but if there were a strong anti-Jewish movement, I fear the treatment would not be so good.

Mr. KEE. You would have us avoid passing a resolution to avoid trouble for a few Jews in other countries. Is that your idea?

Mr. TWITCHELL. It would seem to me that would be true. It would be better that you do not make that resolution now.

Mr. KEE. Do you not think the question of finding other places throughout the world to settle the Jews has already been gone into? Mr. TWITCHELL. Yes, but I have not heard of these four places mentioned. I imagine a great deal has been done, but having had a little different knowledge I offer my suggestions for what they are worth. It is my desire to help, not to add to the controversy. That is my only thought.

Mr. KEE. You have no information whatever as to whether the Jewish people would be welcome to any of these countries?

Mr. TWITCHELL. I think it is pretty well indicated with our own people there would be no trouble about people coming in, the same as we settled our western plains.

Mr. KEE. You know so far as the history of the movement shows that the doors have been closed to them in practically all the countries? Mr. TWITCHELL. Not these places I have mentioned.

Mr. KEE. You mean down in the jungles of Brazil?

Mr. TWITCHELL. Yes; I think they could do well there, but also Cirenaica is a place that has just been released from the Italians. I do not know details. These are constructive suggestions. Mr. KEE. Yes; I recognize that fact.

Chairman BLOOM. Mr. Chiperfield?

Mr. CHIPERFIELD. Do you not think this committee should also secure the views of the War Department and State Department on this resolution and to a considerable extent be guided by those views?

Mr. TWITCHELL. That is why I put in the very last part. Would it not be better to give more time for a correct solution that would be equitable to everybody, as you say, from the State Department and War Department, certainly all of this has a bearing. A very great deal of care should be taken, especially during time of war. Mr. CHIPERFIELD. That is all.

Chairman BLOOM. Mr. Jarman?
Mr. JARMAN. No questions.
Chairman BLOOM. Mr. Jonkman?
Mr. JONKMAN. No questions.
Chairman BLOOM. Mr. Burgin?
Mr. BURGIN. No questions.
Chairman BLOOM. Mrs. Bolton?
Mrs. BOLTON. No questions.
Chairman BLOOM. Mr. Rogers?
Mr. ROGERS. No questions.

Chairman BLOOM. Mr. Wadsworth?
Mr. WADSWORTH. No questions.
Chairman BLOOM. Mr. Wright?

Mr. WRIGHT. No questions.

Chairman BLOOM. Thank you very much, Mr. Twitchell.

Mr. TWITCHELL. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen.

STATEMENT OF FARIS S. MALOUF, PRESIDENT, SYRIAN AND LEBANESE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF THE EASTERN STATES, BOSTON, MASS.

Chairman BLOOM. Please state your name, address, and connec tions for the record.

Mr. MALOUF. My name is Faris S. Malouf, attorney, from Boston, president of and represent the Syrian and Lebanese American Federation of the Eastern States composed of 65 clubs of American citizens of Syrian and Lebanese extraction.

Mr. Chairman, I think I can save time if I could now be told about how much time I will be given. I have taken much time and pains to prepare a presentation in 17 typewritten pages and have limited myself to the issues presented by this resolution. I think it fair that this committee should hear all that I have to say.

Chairman BLOOM. Go ahead please.

Mr. MALOUF. I do not understand that this committee is sitting as a court to judge the merits and demerits of the conflicting JewishArabic claims. Therefore, I shall not enter into controversial details and much discussion of ancient as well as modern historical facts which may have very remote bearing on the resolution. I think your committee has been very patient. The chairman probably was sometimes oversolicitous and patient.

The only question before your committee is whether or not the Congress shall adopt this resolution and whether or not the United States can properly use its good offices with the Government of Great Britain to abrogate the white paper of 1939 and advocate the establishment of a Jewish commonwealth in Palestine.

I, as a citizen of the United States, question the advisability of the adoption of this resolution and very much question the right of the United States to interfere in this matter.

I also think that the rank and file of American citizens will not want to have anything to do with the Palestine controversy although they will very much like to help solve the Jewish problem and protect them against persecution.

Rabbi Wise stated yesterday that he thinks an overwhelming majority of the American people, if given an opportunity to vote whether or not this resolution should be adopted, will vote for it.

I say to you, Mr. Chairman, and members of this committee, the Zionist organization is very powerful in this country and they are located in every State in the Union. I don't know of any reason why they can't carry some such policy as raised by this resolution to the voters of the individual States or at least some of them and thus test the will of the people. I am positive that the American people will not want to impose on a free people an artificial religious foreign state. There was a long period of time, the last part of which is in the memory of us here when there was no claim by anybody in the world to Palestine contrary to the rights of the people living in Palestine, for centuries, long before the advent of the Jews, and ever since they were banished from the land, something happened which gave birth to this dispute.

Some speakers for the resolution have stated that the Arabs did not seek independence prior to the First World War or even during the present war. I think it is only fair that I should make a very brief statement regarding this point.

Speaking about the efforts of the Arabs for independence, the Royal Commission, under the chairmanship of Earl Peel, reported as follows:

For many years before the war the Arab Provinces of the Turkish Empire were restive under the Sultan at Constantinople, and the Turkish Army had often been engaged in repressing the outbreaks of the free spirited Arabs. No less dangerous to Ottoman ascendancy was the growth of a nationalistic movement among the young intelligentsia of Syria. Its origin may be traced to the awakening, about 1860, of the new interest in Arab history and culture * * *. Among them were the ideas of self-government and nationalism.

Therefore no just, peaceful or lasting disposition can be made of Palestine which does not take into consideration the righteous claims of Syria and the entire Arabic world.

It is a well-known fact that hundreds of Syrians, Lebanese, and Palestinians died on the gallows as martyrs for the cause of the Allies because they carried out organized efforts to hamper the GermanTurkish armies and to facilitate the conquest by General Allenby of the Arab land. One-third of the population of Lebanon and many thousands of other parts of Syria and Palestine were starved to death by Jamal Pasha. At the same time Arab recruits were dying on the battlefields under the leadership of Emir Faisal and Colonel Lawrence.

At a time when Great Britain was fighting with its back to the wall, as then described by Lloyd George, shrewd Zionist leaders drove a bargain with His Majesty's Government and in an unfortunate moment for the three parties, the Jews, the Arabs, and the English, the Balfour Declaration-a secret document secrely arrived at, so far as the Arabs were concerned-was born, and with it began the Palestine controversy. The Zionists then began their efforts for a national home which has since then developed through their ambitions into a Jewish commonwealth. For the following reasons the claims of the Zionists cannot be maintained:

1. The most important element in this whole controversy which is being lost sight of is that Palestine has been an integral part of Syria for 25 centuries. The fact that international chicanery and ZionistBritish schemes separated it from her motherland does not make it a separate country. Syria is determined that the Balfour Declaration and Congressional resolutions based upon it shall not be the final chapter in the history of Palestine or binding on either Syria or Palestine.

2. At the time Lord Balfour made this declaration, November 2, 1917, Palestine was not a part of the British Empire, nor was it in possession of the Jews, whose population of Palestine was only 55,000 as against 800,000 Arabs, and England had no right to make any promises in respect thereto.

3. At the time Balfour made his declaration, Britain had through Sir Henry MacMahon already entered into a solemn agreement with King Husein in behalf of the Arabs, October 25, 1915, that England would recognize and assist in the establishment of an independent Arab state, including Palestine. The Arabs were then in complete possession of Palestine and were about to declare their independence and revolt against the Turkish Empire. In consideration of this agreement on the part of England the Arabs revolted against Turkey and shed their blood for 3 years with the armies of the Allies against the combined forces of the Central Powers and Turkey.

4. Lord Balfour's declaration was made secretly to a private English gentleman, Lord Rothschild, and it was more than a year later that the Arabs learned of it. One cannot help asking what right has England to give somebody else's country to a people who were disunited, unorganized, and scattered among the nations of the world, without consulting the people who are immediately concerned and who have occupied that land as its natives from time immemorial and certainly owned it and inhabited it exclusively for the last 13 centuries?

5. In view of the clear binding agreement between England and King Husein, the Balfour declaration, secretly issued and intentionally concealed from the Arabs, was dishonest, insincere, ambiguous and impossible of enforcement.

It was dishonest because the Arabs who were the primary party in interest were not consulted; it was insincere because it does not purport to give the Jews any definite or specific rights, for careful study and consideration of the wording of the declaration will show that the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine is subordinated to and conditioned upon a statement which reveals conscious guilt on the part of England. That statement is found in the second balf of the declaration as follows:

It' being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil or religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine. One wonders what does the phrase "A home for the Jewish people in Palestine" mean.

Does it mean independent Jewish state?

Does it mean the superimposition of a Jewish majority upon the Arab people in Palestine?

Does it mean unrestricted Jewish immigration into Palestine?

And if it does not mean any one of these three propositions, what else can it mean?

And if it means any one of these three propositions, how could that be obtained without "prejudicing the civil or religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine."

With the Balfour Declaration and the efforts of the Zionists to establish their Jewish national home in Palestine in disregard of the Arabs' wishes, a revolution was begun. Concerning this revolution the Royal Commission reported the following findings of facts:

It is, indeed, one of the most unhappy aspects of the present situation-this opening of a breach between the Jewry and the Arab world. We believe that in ordinary circumstances the Arabs would be ready enough to permit a measure of Jewish immigration under their own conditions and control, but the creation of a national home has been neither conditioned nor controlled by the Arabs of Palestine. * * It has been established directly against their will. * The reasons of this breach are: First. The establishment of a national home involved at the outset a blank negation of the right implied in the principle of national self-government;

Second. It soon proved to be not merely an obstacle to the development of national self-government, but apparently the only serious obstacle;

Third. As the home has grown, the fear has grown with it, that if and when self-government is conceded, it may not be national in the Arab sense, but government by a Jewish majority.

I should make this distinction. I should say to the Zionists: Your resolution is based upon the Balfour Declaration and if the Balfour Declaration is weak and invalid in any respect-I feel as a free American citizen I am entitled, rather it is my duty to say that it ill behooves

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