[J. Further
happenings in Europe 1938-1939]
[6.30. England wants to hand over Palestine in
1949 - Guinea project]
[17 May 1939: British
announce to hand over Palestine to the Arabs on 17 May
1949 - 75,000 more Jews in 5 years allowed]
Another element that influenced the discussions regarding
the establishment of the Coordinating Foundation was the
situation in Palestine.
On May 17, 1939, the British published their White Paper
on Palestine, which declared that Britain intended to hand
over the Palestinian Jewish minority to the Arabs there
within ten years. Another 75,000 Jews would be allowed to
enter the country within five years; after that further
Jewish immigration would be subject to Arab consent (that
is, it would cease). With this, the Zionist experiment was
to come to an end.
[17 May 1939: British
Guiana project
for the Jews]
To counteract this blow, the British government published,
on the same day, the
Report of the British
Guiana Refugee Commission to the Advisory Committee on
Political Refugees Appointed by the President of the
United States.
(End note 148: Command Paper 6014; London 1939)
The British had suggested British Guiana as a possible
area of Jewish settlement in late 1938, after they had
determined to their own satisfaction the course they would
pursue in Palestine.
(End note 149: Yehuda Bauer: From Diplomacy to Resistance;
Philadelphia 1970, pp. 11, 19-24)
[14 Feb-19 April 1939:
Special commission makes trip to British Guiana]
JDC, desperately searching for areas of settlement, had
sent Joseph A. Rosen to represent it on a special
commission that investigated British Guiana between
February 14 (p.280)
and April 19, 1939. Rosen fell ill immediately after his
arrival, and his signature on the report does not have any
real meaning. Two other members of the commission were
British.
[17 May 1939: The
commission report about Guiana: 3-5,000 young and sturdy
Jews wanted]
The commission [British Guiana Refugee Commission]
reported that small areas of settlement might possibly be
developed in the more remote parts of the colony, and that
a small group of 3-5,000 young and sturdy settlers should
be chosen to start an experimental colony. It also said
that British Guiana "is not an ideal place for refugees
from middle European countries" and that no immediate
large-scale settlement was possible; there did exist a
potentiality for settlement. In short, the remote tropical
colony might be a good dumping ground for European Jews,
but a longer period of time and a trial settlement were
needed to find out whether people could actually live
there.
In light of the country's checkered history in later
years, it seems highly doubtful that Jews would have been
welcome there at all. Baerwald and others in JDC tried for
some time afterward to defend the Guiana venture,
(End note 150: For example, Executive Committee, 5/22/39
[22 May 1939], when Baerwald "deplored the slighting
reference to British Guiana" in a letter by Henry Montor
to JDC. There were to be other comments of this kind).
until finally the project disappeared from view, as did so
many others at the time.
[which?]
The British, of course, vehemently denied all allegations
that their policies in Palestine and Guiana were in any
way connected.
[22 June 1939: Meeting on
British Guiana: Money for the Coordinating Foundation
for Guiana needed]
At a meeting on British Guiana held on June 22, 1939,
Malcolm MacDonald, the British colonial secretary, clearly
stated that any colonization would require investment of
private Jewish money on a very large scale. From his
statements it emerges that he thought of the Coordinating
Foundation primarily as an organization to get the Guiana
project going. He hinted that if no Jewish money was
forthcoming, Britain might have to reconsider her whole
refugee policy - a very thinly veiled threat of reprisals
against refugees trying to enter Britain.
(End note 151: 30-Germany, proposals of settlement in
other countries, British Guiana, 6/22/39 [22 June 1939],
report of Robert Pell to the secretary of state).
