Neville Chamberlain

The Right Honourable Arthur Neville Chamberlain (18 March 1869–9 November, 1940) was a British politician and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1937–1940.

Palestine White Paper

One of the greatest controversies of Chamberlain's premiership concerned the government's policy on the future of the British Mandate of Palestine. After successive commissions and talks had failed to achieve a consensus, the government argued that the statements in the Balfour Declaration (1917) (that it "view with favour" a "national home" for Jews in Palestine), now had been achieved since over 450,000 Jews had settled there. A new MacDonald White Paper of 1939, so named after the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Malcolm MacDonald, was then introduced. It proposed a quota of 75,000 further immigrants for the first five years, with restrictions on the purchase of land.

Related Topics:
British Mandate of Palestine - Balfour Declaration - Jew - Palestine - MacDonald White Paper of 1939

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The introduction of the White Paper caused massive outcry, both in the Jewish world and in British politics. Many supporting the National Government were opposed to the policy on the grounds that they claimed it contradicted the Balfour Declaration. Many government MPs either voted against the proposals or abstained, including Cabinet Ministers such as the Jewish Leslie Hore-Belisha. Although adopted, implementation was slow; when the Government fell the following year, the plans were dropped.

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