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

the face” and Winterton emphasized that it “was not a conference…but an
intergovernmental committee’s consultation [with] his intention being to make it clear to
us that in fact we had no business to be here at all.” 33 MP Miss Eleanor Rathbone, during
a House of Commons debate, also referred to the “pro-Arab sympathies of the Chancellor
of the Duchy of Lancaster.” 34
Winterton served as Chairman of the Unofficial Committee to Defend Arab
Interests in the House of Commons and was a friend of Iraqi Foreign Minister Nuri Said.
Winterton believed (along with others) in the necessity of Jews remaining a minority
group, limited to forty percent of the total population, within Palestine coupled with a
strict limitation or outright banning of land sales to Jews. Such a process, it was hoped,
would allay Muslim fears, put an end to the Arab Revolt and pave the way for selfgovernment.
Said, however, would not accede to this plan. He envisaged the creation of
an Arab confederation, linking Palestine, Transjordan, Iraq and possibly Syria.
Restrictions on Jewish immigration into the Mandate would continue in order to maintain
the ratio of seven Arabs to four Jews, ensuring a permanent Muslim majority in Palestine.
Thus, Palestinian Arab fears of Jewish economic and political domination would be
eliminated. 35
33 Arthur Ruppin, Pirkei Hayyai: be-vinyan ha-arez ve-ha’am, iii (Tel Aviv, 1968), 302-303 cited in
Vital, A People Apart, 881-889.
34 “Oral Answers to Questions—Refugees” House of Common Debates, June 27, 1938, House of
Commons Debates, June 27, 1938, vol. 337, cc1516-7, available from
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=1938-06-
27a.1516.8&s=%22Evian+Conference%22#g1516.9; Internet; accessed August 7, 2010. Eleanor Rathbone
(May 12, 1872-January 2, 1946) was the Member of Parliament for the Combined English Universities and
one of the first women to serve in the House. She was a social activist for feminine issues, independence of
the British Colonies and became one of the most outspoken MP’s offering support for Jewish refugees.
35 Sanders, Shores of Refuge, 439; Michael J. Cohen, Palestine: Retreat from the Mandate, The Making
of British Policy 1936-45 (London: Paul Elek, 1978), 27, 197, fn101; Yehoshua Porath, “Nuri al-Sa’id’s
168