The Jewish Trail of Tears The Evian Conference of ... - Haruth.com

much emphasis would then be placed on Palestine (although it had a labor shortage due
to Zionist development of the land and its resources) as a potential asylum, insisted that
non-European countries be invited as well. 140 The British accepted the invitation with the
stipulation that Palestine would not be discussed at the conference and that the U.S.
would guarantee that the U.K. would not be pressured to accept more Jewish refugees
into Palestine. Conversely, Britain would not attempt to pressure the United States into
revising its immigration laws to accept more stateless refugees.
Taylor, during a preliminary meeting with the British delegation, indicated that
Nahum Goldmann had approached him and discussed the potential role of Palestine as a
place of permanent resettlement. Goldmann requested that Chaim Weizmann, the head
of the Jewish Agency, meet with Taylor in private session to present the argument that
Palestine offered the best haven for Jewish refugees. 141 However, Sir Michael Palairet,
deputy head of the British delegation, declared that the British government “would
naturally prefer that this meeting should not take place.” Taylor informed Goldmann that
there would be an “opportunity” for a confidential meeting with Weizmann but it would
not be scheduled prior to the commencement of the Conference. Weizmann later noted:
In those days before the war, our protests, when voiced, were regarded
as provocations; our very refusal to subscribe to our own death
sentence became a public nuisance, and was taken in bad part.
Alternating threats and appeals were addressed to us to acquiesce in the
surrender of Palestine. 142
140 Morton Blum, From the Morgenthau Diaries: Years of the War 1941-1945 (Boston, MA: Houghton-
Mifflin, 1959), 207-208.
141 Weizmann, as President of the Jewish Agency, was regarded by the League of Nations as the
representative of the Jewish people before the League and the U.K. which had been granted the Mandate
over Palestine.
142 Telegram from M. Taylor to Sumner Welles, photocopy, Geoffrey Wigoder, ed., Encyclopaedia
Judaica, vol. VI, (Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House, 1970), 988; Chaim Weizmann, Trial and Error
(London: Hamish Hamilton, 1949), 498.
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