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there is no report here from the Department. The resolution simply calls for an expression of opinion of the House of Representatives. A similar resolution was introduced in the Senate. The resolution introduced in the House and in the Senate has the approval of the majority leader and of the minority leader of the House and of the majority leader of the Senate and the acting minority leader of the Senate, Senator Barkley and Senator White.

The resolution is a simple resolution, and the resolution part of it is: Resolved, That the United States shall use its good offices and take appropriate measures to the end that the doors of Palestine shall be opened for free entry of Jews into that country, and that there shall be full opportunity for colonization, so that the Jewish people may ultimately reconstitute their Palestine as a free and democratic Jewish commonwealth.

I will say for the benefit of the committee that the information that is contained in this pamphlet which is before you, and which has been compiled for your information and consideration, contains the history of Palestine going back hundreds of years, and also the expression of thought with reference to this matter, especially the commonwealth idea, of President Wilson, President Harding, and President Coolidge.

It also contains speeches made in the House of Lords and the House of Commons in opposition to the British white paper on Palestine.

Your chairman thought that we would listen to the witnesses who wish to testify on these resolutions, and then if we want any further advice, or any further information, in addition to what is contained in this document, why, of course, it is very easy for us to get it and to consider it in executive session.

Mrs. ROGERS. Are you going to ask the State Department for a report on this, Mr. Chairman?

Chairman BLOOM. The Chair just finished stating that if we want any further information we would be very glad to ask them.

Mrs. ROGERS. I introduced a resolution some time ago and the committee insisted that the State Department be asked for an opinion on it.

Chairman BLOOM. When was the resolution introduced?

Mrs. ROGERS. Oh, it was some time ago, a year ago. The committee would not act upon it without an opinion from the State Department.

Chairman BLOOM. The Chair would like to state, that with the ever changing situation throughout the world, what might have been considered appropriate and the best thing to do a year ago, might be changed today, so that if it is necessary, and if the committee feels that they want to get further information, why, there is no reason we ought not to get it.

Mrs. ROGERS. You would have no objection?

Chairman BLOOM. Oh, no; none at all. We want to get all the information we possibly can.

Mr. EATON. I have been asked by a number of people about this resolution. Who wrote it; who prepared this resolution; is it the child of our two distinguished leaders, the majority leader and the minority leader, or who is the author of it?

Chairman BLOOM. The author of the idea goes back 2,000 years, if I remember.

Dr. EATON. Let us bring it down to date-February 1944. Chairman BLOOM. As to the idea contained in both of these resolutions, I do not know by whom it was suggested. The chairman merely had these resolutions referred to your committee through regular channels. If you wish to find out who the actual authors are I would be glad to try to find out for you.

Dr. EATON. I have to answer these constituents of mine.

Chairman BLOOM. I am not afraid, Dr. Eaton, of your answer, and I know the answer will be the correct one. I know your constituents will know, whichever way you vote, that you are voting according to the dictates of your heart.

We have with us this morning the majority and minority leaders of the House. I would like to call on Mr. John McCormack, first, to express his views to the committee, and then Mr. Martin, and then the Chair would like to state that we will call Members of the Congress immediately after Mr. McCormack and Mr. Martin. We would like to go along until about half-past 12, and then recess until 2 o'clock, because there are some witnesses here from out of town, and they would like to get away, because they cannot get accommodations here in Washington. So that we will run along until 12:30, and then recess until 2 o'clock, and go along from 2 to 4.

Mrs. BOLTON. Have we secured permission from the House to sit this afternoon, Mr. Chairman?

Chairman BLOOм. We will receive it. There is nothing on the floor of the House anyway, but we will receive permission, because there is only general debate. Is there any objection to that? The Chair hears none.

Mr. McCormack.

STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE JOHN W. McCORMACK, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS

Mr. McCORMACK. Mr. Chairman, and members of the committee, the resolution before this committee, which I support, is a clarification of the historic American policy established by the joint resolution of the Sixty-seventh Congress, adopted in 1922.

In fact, before the Balfour Declaration was accepted by the Allied and Associated Powers in the First World War, the approval of the United States was sought and secured.

President Woodrow Wilson, on March 3, 1919, speaking of the Balfour Declaration, said, and I quote:

I have before this expressed my personal approval of the declaration of the British Government regarding the aspirations and historic claims of the Jewish people in regard to Palestine. I am, moreover, persuaded that the Allied Nations, with the fullest concurrence of our Government and people, are agreed that in Palestine shall be laid the foundations of a Jewish commonwealth.

A study of the record discloses that it was intended in due time when the Jewish people shall attain a majority in Palestine they shall reconstitute their Palestine as a Jewish commonwealth. This was the way Mr. Churchill himself, the then British Secretary of State for War, hailed the Balfour Declaration when on February 8, 1920, Mr. Churchill said:

If, as may well happen, there should be created in our own lifetime by the banks of the Jordan a Jewish state under the protection of the British Crown which might

comprise three or four millions of Jews, an event will have occurred in the history of the world which would from every point of view be beneficial, and would be especially in harmony with the truest interests of the British Empire.

It may be worthy of mention that in the resolution adopted by the legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in favor of the Jewish National Home in Palestine on the 13th day of February 1919, it is declared that

* * * There should be established such political, administrative, economic conditions in Palestine as will assure the development of Palestine into a Jewish commonwealth.

I am persuaded that the original intention of the Balfour Declaration was to afford to the Jews the opportunity to immigrate into Palestine and to develop that country. It was contemplated that this will in due time lead to the establishment of a Jewish commonwealth.

In the face of the terrible tragedy of the Jewish homelessness in Europe today and which will follow the inevitable victorious conclusion of the war by the United Nations, it is appropriate to point to Palestine as the one country which was publicly and legally set apart as the Jewish national home for this dark hour, in order that it might receive and absorb a large number of these victims of Nazi persecution.

I will not undertake to describe the plight of the Jewish people in Europe. Language is inadequate for that purpose except to say that they have been driven about like the last dying leaves before the chill winds of winter.

Where shall they go?

There is nothing on the European horizon to which they may look with hope. Where is the country which is extending an invitation to the Jews to come, except Palestine?

It is the Jewish pioneers themselves with the help of American Jewry and other Jewries of the world who rebuilt the land of their forefathers, reclaimed its soil, and made it a decent place for all the inhabitants to live in, without injury to anyone.

Mr. Malcolm MacDonald as the British Secretary of State for the Colonies in a statement in the House of Commons on February 24, 1938, said:

* * * Their (the Jews') achievement has been remarkable. They have turned sand dunes into orange groves. They have pushed ever farther into waste land the frontiers of cultivation and settlement. They have created a new city, housing today 140,000 souls, where before there was only bare seashore. There is no knowledge where their achievement might end if Palestine were empty of all other populations and could be handed over to them in full ownership. The Jews are in Palestine not on sufferance but by right, and today, under the lash of persecution in central Europe, their eagerness to return to their own homeland is multiplied a hundred times. The tragedy of a people who have no country has never been so deep as it is in this week. The sympathy of our own countrymen, their anxiety to do everything they can to help the persecuted Jews has never been so firm as it is today. * *

*

Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, this resolution is expressive not only of the historic American policy with reference to Palestine, but it is in line with the highest ideals of humanity and the basic principles for which this war is being fought.

If, as we hope and expect, that order shall be established in this world out of the present chaos, it is indeed imperative that the problem of Jewish homelessness should be solved in the interest of world order and of justice, which we believe will eventually come into being.

We cannot close our eyes from the point of view of the enlightened self-interest of the non-Jewish world to the cruel spectacle of 2,000,000 Jews roaming over Europe in search for a home. It is a challenge to all kinds of justice, particularly Christian justice.

We can do no less than to declare our views in favor of free entry of Jews into their National Home and full freedom of opportunity for Jewish colonization and resettlement in Palestine.

It is important for the Jewish people to know that in the course of time when they shall constitute a majority in Palestine then, with the sanction of the nations of the world, Palestine shall become a free and democratic Jewish commonwealth.

I know that every decent-minded person, without regard to race, color, or creed, has a deep feeling not only of sympathy, but far beyond sympathy for the unfortunate plight of all persecuted peoples, of peoples who have been maltreated by the Nazi horde, and particularly those of the Jewish faith who have undergone vicious persecution in the past several years. It is the cry of humanity that I have referred to, the cry of justice, and particularly a challenge to Christian justice that this problem be met. They are human beings just like you and I. They have their hopes and their aspirations. They have their little families, the men have their wives, and the wives have their husbands, and they have their children as God has blessed them. They are human beings seeking a home, some place where they can live without fear of future persecution.

The least that the Congress and the House of Representatives can do is to go on record in the direction which shows that they think along not only constructive but human lines. I think this resolution is the foundation for action on our part which will be an adequate expression of the feelings of the members of this committee and of the House of Representatives.

May I at this time to you, Mr. Chairman, and to the committee express my congratulations and my thanks for this fine, historical compilation, and to the chairman, Congressman Bloom, whom we all admire and respect, a man who enjoys the deep respect of every colleague of his, a great American, may I express my appreciation for your courtesy, and may I compliment you for this fine publication of the documents which are of great value and which will remain a source of intelligent information.

Chairman BLOOM. Thank you very much, Mr. McCormack. Are there any questions the members of the committee want to ask? Mrs. ROGERS. He made a very forceful statement.

Chairman BLOOM. Mr. McCormack, Mrs. Rogers agrees with you. Mr. McCORMACK. I am very happy to know that.

Chairman BLOOM. We now have another gentleman from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, our beloved friend, the minority leader, and a former member of this committee, as I was reminded by my good friend, Mr. Johnson, here.

The thought occurred to me that we are talking about a commonwealth in this resolution, and here we have two gentlemen from a commonwealth of this country, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Mr. McCormack and Mr. Martin, representing both of the major parties from the same Commonwealth. The thought occurred to me that where we have leaders of the two major political parties from one commonwealth in this great country of ours working

in harmony on these resolutions, could it not be possible that in that other commonwealth that we are discussing here today that the people would be able to live in harmony and peace and good will the same as in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

I now call upon our very good friend, Mr. Martin.

STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE JOSEPH W. MARTIN, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS

It

Mr. MARTIN. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, it is almost like coming home for me to come up to this little room. seems natural to see it crowded, as, indeed, it always is at these hearings of the Foreign Affairs Committee. I spent 12 very pleasant years as a member of this committee, and I have often wished I was still a member.

Chairman BLOOM. We also wish you were back with us, Mr. Martin. Mr. MARTIN. For more than 20 years I have been in sympathy with the resolution which is presented here today. I have believed that it was the solution of one of the great problems that must be solved some day if we are going to have a happy and contented world. This resolution is an expression of the sympathy of the people of the United States with Jewish aspirations for the restoration of their national life in Palestine. It is a reassertion of the historic attitude of the United States as embodied in the Lodge Palestine resolution which was adopted by Congress in 1922.

The tragedy of the Jewish people has never been so deep as it is today. The terrible persecution and mass murder of the Jews of Europe is so ghastly that no true Christian heart can withhold its sympathy. But, all will not be destroyed. That is the hope and prayer of all civilized men. Those Jews who will escape Nazi extermination will face cruel homelessness, except for Palestine.

Following the victorious conclusion of the war the only country which will be capable of receiving and absorbing large number of these unfortunate people will be Palestine, which country was made ready for that very purpose.

During the past two decades the Jewish pioneers in Palestine have turned sand dunes into orange groves. They have pushed farther into the waste land frontiers of cultivation and settlement. They have developed industries and made Palestine a better place to live in for all of its inhabitants regardless of race or creed.

The 600,000 Jews of Palestine have made a magnificent contribution to the war effort of the United Nations. Thousands of their sons have volunteered in the armed service of Great Britain and gave a good account of themselves on the field of battle.

It is nothing but elementary justice to enable the homeless Jews of Europe, the victims of the Nazi tyranny, to enter Palestine, not on sufference, but as a matter of right.

This resolution is a reaffirmation of the established policy of the United States in favor of a Jewish national home in harmony with the new and terrible realities with which the Jews of Europe are faced today.

Mrs. ROGERS. That is a splendid statement.

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