Dalia Ofer.pdf - WNLibrary

356 NOTES
43. FO 371/25242 W12014, the high commissioner to the colonial secretary, 11/
18/40 and 11/23/40. MacMichael believed that it was Wei/mann's formal duty to ensure
civil peace among the Yishuv. Sec Zweig 1986, pp. 70-73.
44. Ibid., the high commissioner to the colonial secretary, 11/23/40.
45. FO 371/25242 W72715/38/48, from Bed Locker, head of the Zionist Office in
London, to the Foreign Office, 11/9/40.
46. Ibid., 11/14/40, from Butler (Washington) to the Foreign Office.
47. Ibid.
48. Ibid., 11/14/40, signature unclear.
49. Cabinet Meeting Summaries (CAB) 65/10, p. 111. The document is found in
G. Cohen 1976, pp. 74-76; also FO 371/2542/8159 W12506/38/48, notes by Dexter to
the Cabinet decisions, 11/28/40, and by Snow, 11/29/40.
50. The most severe criticism on this matter was that of Latham, in the Foreign
Office Refugees Department, 12/28/40 (FO 371/29161 W2714/38/48). Latham attacked
both the declaration and the deportation policy as being ineffective as a means
of ending illegal immigration: "This is not the place to comment generally upon
the arrogant and futile way in which this declaration boldly mortgages the future in
order to extricate us from embarrassments due to present timidity or short-sightedness
. . . One imagines that the main purpose of this decision was not so much to
deter future immigrants as to pacify Arab opinion. ..." On Latham's suggestions,
see below.
51. The document may be found in G. Cohen 1976, p. 177.
52. Ibid., pp. 78-79. Churchill, who opposed the deportation policy, found it
necessary to respond to Wavell's message to the war secretary. He disagreed with
Wavell's assessment, both with regard to the need to pacify the Arabs and with regard
to the violence that would result from the government's actions. His letter to Wavell
was quite sharply worded. Wavell, however, was unmoved: ibid., 12/3/40.
53. News clippings from the British press on the Atlantic and Patria affairs,
in CZA S25/2631, and a testimony of a constable at the Atlit detention camp. Sec
also CZA S25/10582, letter from Shertok to Weizmann, 12/2/40, demanding an
investigation committee on the behavior of British army and police during the
deportation.
54. FO 371/29160 W188, Snow to Downie, 1/14/41. To a request made by Downie,
3/1/41, of McPherson (general secretary of the Palestine administration) to provide
evidence for the claim about Nazi agents, McPherson replied (7/8/41): "The police
have not been able to find any evidence showing individuals among the illegal immigrants
to be enemy agents." CO 733/445/76021/41.
55. FO 371/25242 Wl 2506/38/48, especially Latham's memorandum of 12/28/40,
FO 371/29161 W2714 (and see below for further discussion).
56. Ibid.
57. See Zweig 1986, pp. 78-82.
58. FO 371/29161 W2714, memorandum of 12/28/40, and notes dating until 4/
7/41.
59. CO 733/429/29162, memorandum of the colonial secretary to the Cabinet,
3/28/41, CAB W.P.(41) 74; ibid., memorandum from Downie on this, 3/29/41;
ibid., FO 371/29162 W3715/11/48, Foreign Office to the embassy in Washington,
4/3/41.
60. FO 371/29161/9125 W27L4. This statement is problematic. The British ought
to have feared an even greater wave of refugees once German control was established
in the Balkans. They had contended all along that the Germans were forcing the Jews