MACDONALD LETTER

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What was the MacDonald Letter of 1931?

Far from discouraging Jews, the 1929 Palestinian Arab riots prompted a huge outpouring of support from all sections of Jewish society. Felix Warburg together with Lord Melchett headed a worldwide call for help and appealed to the British prime minister, Ramsay MacDonald. Warburg also organized the Palestine Emergency Fund that raised more than five million dollars to repair riot damage.

The British colonial secretary, Lord Passfield, announced the formation of a Commission of Inquiry, which began its investigation of the "immediate causes" of the riots in September 1929. When the Passfield White Paper was published at the end of March 1930 it provided satisfactory to the Mandate administration and to the Arab leaders, but it was a source of consternation to the Jewish side.

The Zionist movement mounted a major campaign against the Passfield White Paper. and in a letter made public, during February 1931, British Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald, promised Chaim Weizmann what amounted to its abrogation.

The letter from Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald to Chaim Weizmann, dated 13 February 1931 was not equal to the Paper in the level of legality, but the MacDonald Letter was issued as an official interpretation of the White Paper. The letter reiterated the Mandate's obligation to "facilitate Jewish immigration and to encourage close settlement by Jews on the land," and suggested that State lands be made available to both Jews and Arabs. The letter reaffirmed the government's right to control immigration, as well as the link between immigration and economic absorptive capacity.

The Zionists regarded the letter as a restoration of the status quo ante, while the Arabs, who had greeted the limitations of the Passfield White Paper with satisfaction, called the MacDonald Letter "a black frame for the White Paper".

Sources and additional reading on this topic:

• 1923-1948: Nationalism, immigration, and "economic absorptive capacity"
• A Non-Zionist on Eretz Israel