Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry
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The Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry was a joint British and American attempt in 1946 to agree a policy as regards the admission of Jews to Palestine.
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[edit] Background
In 1917, Britain drafted the Balfour Declaration, becoming the first Great Power to support Zionist demands for a Jewish Homeland in Palestine.
Shortly after, Britain conquered Palestine, defeating the Ottoman Empire in World War I and the Balfour Declaration was approved by the League of Nations becoming part of the terms of the British Mandate for Palestine. The USA did not join the League of Nations but signed a separate agreement with Britain approving the terms of the Mandate.
The rise of Nazism and the 1936-1939 Arab revolt in Palestine led the British to reverse the Balfour Declaration in the 1939 White Paper. This policy restricted Jewish migration to 75,000 (by 1949) and promised an independent state in Palestine with an Arab majority, to be established by 1948. Anyone defined as "a Jew" was banned from purchasing land in 95% of Palestine.
The end of World War II and the Holocaust left Europe with hundreds of thousands of displaced Jewish refugees. American public opinion supported a Jewish Homeland in Palestine, but Britain persisted in opposing Jewish immigration, fearing the instability of Arab nations. Jews in Palestine waged an underground war against the British occupation, the refugee situation was critical, the British Empire collapsing, the Soviet threat growing, and British and American policy was at loggerheads.
The British government suggested the inquiry in the belief that it would agree with their decision to halt Jewish migration into Palestine and thus disarm American pressure. To this end the British agreed to abide by the committees findings, but made sure that British committee members had a record of supporting Palestinian aspirations.
[edit] The Committee
[edit] Members
The committee comprised six Americans and six British. Judge ‘Texas Joe’ Hutcheson was the American Chairman. He was joined by Frank Aydelotte, William Phillips, Frank Buxton, James G. McDonald, and Bartley Crum. The group was a diverse group of diplomats, scholars, and politicians, most in favor of the proposal that 100,000 displaced persons be admitted to Palestine. The British contingent was comprised by Lord Morrison, Sir Frederick Leggett, Wilfrid Crick, Reginald Manningham-Buller, and Richard Crossman, and headed by Sir John Singleton.
[edit] Journey
The Committee visited Washington, D.C. and London to gauge the official policies and position of the two nations. They proceeded to Vienna to view a displaced persons camp of Holocaust survivors, and then Cairo to discuss Arab sentiments. The Committee then visited Palestine. They finally retired to Switzerland to debate and draft their findings.
During their stay in Vienna they surveyed Jewish Holocaust survivors as to their preferred destination. 98% said Palestine.
"In Poland, Hungary and Rumania, the chief desire is to get out, to get away somewhere where there is a chance of building up a flew life, of finding some happiness, of living in peace and in security. In Germany also, where the number of Jews has been reduced from about 500,000 in 1933 to about 20,000 now, and most traces of Jewish life have been destroyed, there is a similar desire on the part of a large proportion of the survivors to make a home elsewhere, preferably in Palestine. In Czechoslovakia, particularly in Bohemia and Moravia, and in Austria, the position in regard to the reestablishment of the Jewish populations is more hopeful. The vast majority of the Jewish displaced persons and migrants, however, believe that the only place which offers a prospect is Palestine." (Anglo-American Committee of inquiry, chapter 2 paragraph 12)
[edit] Findings
In April 1946, the Committee reported. Miraculously its members had arrived at a unanimous decision, despite the vast range of opinions of the members. The Committee approved the American condition of the immediate acceptance of 100,000 Jewish refugees from Europe into Palestine.
Excerpts from Chapter I of the report are as follows:
Principles of Government: No Arab, No Jewish State
Recommendation No. 3. In order to dispose, once and for all, of the exclusive claims of Jews and Arabs to Palestine, we regard it as essentia1 that a clear statement of the following principles should be made:
I. That Jew shall not dominate Arab and Arab shall not dominate Jew in Palestine. II. That Palestine shall be neither a Jewish state nor an Arab state. III. That the form of government ultimately to be established, shall, under international guarantees, fully protect and preserve the interests in the Holy Land of Christendom and of the Moslem and Jewish faiths.
Thus Palestine must ultimately become a state which guards the rights and interests of Moslems, Jews and Christians alike; and accords to the inhabitants, as a whole, the fullest measure of self-government, consistent with the three paramount principles set forth above.
Mandate and United Nations Trusteeship
Recommendation No. 4. We have reached the conclusion that the hostility between Jews and Arabs and, in particular, the determination of each to achieve domination, if necessary by violence. make it almost certain that, now and for some time to come, any attempt to establish either an independent Palestinian State or independent Palestinian States would result in civil strife such as might threaten the peace of the world.
[edit] Effects of the Committee
Within several days of the release of the Committee’s findings, its implementation was in jeopardy. U.S. President Harry S.Truman angered the British Labour Party by issuing a statement supporting the 100,000 refugees but refusing to acknowledge other aspects of the finding.
In response a new committee, the Morrison-Grady Committee was proposed, which shortly negated many of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry’s chief proposals.
From October 1946 1,500 Jews were allowed into Palestine every month. Half of these came from the Cyprus internment camps which held illegal immigrants to Palestine. this allowance was designed to go someway to meet the promise made that the committee's findings would be binding, it also helped reduce pressure from the Jews of Palestine and fears that the growing numbers of Jews being held in Cyprus would destabilize British rule on the island.
