The London Conference of 1939, or St James's Palace Conference, which took place between 7 February and 17 March 1939, was called by the British Government to plan the future governance of Palestine and an end of the Mandate. It opened on 7 February 1939 in St James's Palace after which the Colonial Secretary, Malcolm MacDonald held a series of separate meetings with the Arab Higher Committee and Zionist delegation, because the Arab Higher Committee delegation refused to sit in the same room as the Zionist delegation. When MacDonald first announced the proposed conference he made clear that if no agreement was reached the government would impose a solution. The process came to an end after five and a half weeks with the British announcing proposals which were later published as the 1939 White Paper.
Background In 1936, following the Great Arab Revolt, Palestinians went on a general strike. Additionally, Palestinian Arab leaders formed the Higher National Committee (HNC).
After the strike, the British government established the Peel Commission, chaired by Lord Peel, to investigate its causes and to make recommendations to the British government in the light of commitments made in the Balfour Declaration for the establishment of a homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine. The commission concluded that the only solution was to partition the country into a Jewish state and an Arab state. The two main Zionist leaders, Chaim Weizmann and David Ben-Gurion, had convinced the World Zionist Congress to approve equivocally the Peel recommendations as a basis for more negotiation.William Roger Louis, Ends of British Imperialism: The Scramble for Empire, Suez, and Decolonization, 2006, p. 391Benny Morris, One state, two states:resolving the Israel/Palestine conflict, 2009, p. 66Benny Morris, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, p. 48; p. 11 "while the Zionist movement, after much agonising, accepted the principle of partition and the proposals as a basis for negotiation"; p. 49 "In the end, after bitter debate, the Congress equivocally approved – by a vote of 299 to 160 – the Peel recommendations as a basis for further negotiation."
The partition idea was rejected by the Arabs as it went against the promise made by the British for the Palestinians to have their own state and become independent. On 1 October 1937, with a resurgence of violence after the publication of the Peel Commission proposals, the HNC and all nationalist committees were outlawed. Five prominent Palestinians, including Yacoub Al Ghussein and three members of the HNC were deported to the Seychelles. The remaining members of the HNC were either already out of the country or, like Haj Amin Husseini, went into hiding and then into exile in Cairo, Damascus and Beirut.Abcarius. p. 197
Over the summer of 1938, antigovernment and intercommunal violence in Palestine reached new heights. Palestinians controlled large areas of the countryside and several towns, including the Old City of Jerusalem. The Zionist underground set off a series of lethal bombs in Palestinian markets across the country, and the Zionist Special Night Squads launched their first operations.Cohen. pp. 210,211 In the autumn, the British authorities launched a counteroffensive. More British troops were sent, and martial law was declared.Kayyali. pp. 214,215
In 1938, the Woodhead Commission was sent to Palestine to report on how to implement the partition proposals. The commission, chaired by Sir John Woodhead, was boycotted by the Palestinians, whose leaders had been deported or were in exile and who had no wish to discuss partition.Survey of Palestine, p. 47; Abcarius, p. 197; Cohen, p. 213 The commission considered three different plans, one of which was based on the Peel plan. Reporting in 1938, the Commission rejected the Peel plan, primarily on the grounds that it could not be implemented without a massive forced transfer of Palestinians, an option that the British government had already ruled out. With dissent from some of its members, it instead recommended a plan that would leave the Galilee under British mandate but emphasised serious problems with it that included a lack of financial self-sufficiency for the proposed Palestinian state. The British government accompanied the publication of the Woodhead Report by a statement of policy rejecting partition as impracticable for "political, administrative and financial difficulties".Statement by His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, Presented by the Secretary of State for the Colonies to Parliament by Command of His Majesty November 1938.
Coinciding with the publication of the Woodhead Commission's report on 9 November 1938, the government issued a statement that it wished to end the Mandate and that Britain would continue to govern Palestine until a new regime was established. To that end the Colonial Secretary, Malcolm MacDonald, invited a mixed Palestinian and Zionist delegation to London to discuss what form of government should be established. The statement concluded that if agreement was not reached with the two delegations, the government would put forward and implement its own proposals.Marlowe, p. 208 The Palestinian delegation was to include Palestinians as well as representatives from five pro-British Arab regimes. The Zionist delegation was selected by the Jewish Agency and included Zionist Jews from the Jewish diaspora as well as the Yishuv.
By the winter of 1938, British thinking was dominated by the territorial expansion of Nazi Germany. If World War II occurred in Europe, it would be essential for Britain to maintain control over Egypt, Iraq and Palestine. It was certain that concessions would be offered to the Palestinians and that the Zionists would be disappointed.Marlow. pp. 208, 219; Teveth, p. 697
Preparation
Some Palestinian leaders welcomed the proposed conference but it soon became clear that there was not going to be any alternative to dealing with the disbanded Higher National Committee (HNC) and former Mufti of Jerusalem Amin Husseini. On 23 November the Colonial Secretary, Malcolm MacDonald, repeated his refusal to allow Amin Husseini to be a delegate, but announced his willingness to allow the five Palestinian leaders held in the Seychelles to take part in the conference. This was part of an agreement made in London following informal meetings between MacDonald and Musa Alami to ensure a Palestinian Arab presence at the conference. MacDonald also assured Alami that the Mandate would be replaced with a treaty.Abcarius. p. 204. The deportees were released on 19 December and allowed to travel to Cairo and then, with Jamal Husseini, to Beirut where a new Higher National Committee was established. Amin Husseini, who was living in Beirut, was not a member of the resulting delegation but it was under his direction. This can be seen in the refusal to accept any delegates from the National Defence Party (NDP). Attempts to form an alternative, more pro-British and less militant, Palestinian delegation led to two additional NDP delegates being added to the Palestinian representation after the start of the conference.Marlowe. pp. 209–215
The five Arab regimes invited were the Kingdoms of Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen, and the Emirate of Transjordan - all within the British sphere of influence. Egypt, Iraq and Saudi Arabia had been instrumental in ending the 1936 strike.Abcarius. p. 203
The Zionists had reacted negatively to the proposed conference and debated whether they should attend.Cohen. p. 213 Their delegation was led by Chaim Weizmann in the name of the Jewish Agency. To emphasise its claim to represent all Jews, and to counterbalance the presence of representatives from the Arab states, the delegation included members from the US, Europe, Britain, South Africa, and Palestine.Marlowe. pp. 214, 215.
The conference was opened by the Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain on 7 February 1939 at St James's Palace, London. The Palestinian delegation refused to attend any joint sessions with the Zionist Jewish Agency delegation so there were two ceremonies. This was at the insistence of the Palestinian delegates. The first ceremony, for the Palestinian delegation, was at 10.30 a.m., the second for the Zionist Jewish Agency delegation was at 11.45.Bar-Zohar, Michael (1978) Ben-Gurion. Translated by Peretz Kidron. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London. . Originally published in Israel 1977. p.94Teveth, Burning Ground. p.696; Marlowe. p.215.
Meetings with Palestinian Delegation The Arab Palestinian delegation was led by Jamal Husseini and consisted of Awni Abd al-Hadi, Yacoub Al Ghussein, Husayin al-Khalidi, Alfred Roch and Musa Alami. They were accompanied by George Antonius and Fuad Saba, who were to act as secretaries.Marlowe. p. 12 The Egyptian delegate was Aly Maher, and Iraq was represented by Prime Minister Nuri Said.Weizmann, p. 502 The Saudis were represented by Prince Faisal and Prince Khalid, both of whom later became kings of Saudi Arabia.Khalidi, p. 230
The Arab Palestinian delegates had meetings with the representatives from the Arab states in Cairo from 17 January. Despite pressure from the other delegates, the Arab Palestinian group refused to include any representatives from the moderate National Defence Party (NDP) of Raghib al-Nashashibi. A campaign of violence between the rebels and the NDP's supporters led to 136 deaths in 1939. The NDP claimed to represent most of the upper classes and demanded representation at the London conference. The British let it be known that if agreement could not be reached, they would talk to two Palestinian Arab delegations. Nashashibi and his deputy Ya'aqoub Farraj joined the Arab delegation two days after the opening ceremony.Marlowe. p. 213; Survey. p. 49
Although the Arab Palestinian delegates refused to have any contact with the Zionists, some meetings took place with other Arab delegates.
On 9 February, Jamal Husseini put forward the Arab position: Independence No Jewish national home in Palestine Replacement of the Mandate by a treaty End of Jewish immigrationMarlowe. p. 215
On February 16, 1939, a meeting was held with Arab leaders. The goal of the meeting was to either reach an agreement or, if that was not possible, ensure that the British government understood the wishes of both sides so it could act accordingly.
During the discussion, the Arab parties were offered a proposal for the establishment of an Arab state, within which a Jewish minority would have equal rights.
The first task the conference set itself was to establish the meaning of a series of letters, written in Arabic in 1915 to 1916, between the British government and the governor of Mecca, Hussein bin Ali. Known as the McMahon-Hussein Correspondence, the letters are credited with encouraging Husseini to call for the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire. An Anglo-Arab committee was set up, presided by the Lord Chancellor, Frederic Maugham, to examine the issue. An official version of the letters was published for the first time.Sykes. p. 205. An accurate translation had been printed in Antonius' "The Arab Awaking", 1938, as well as in extracts in the Daily Mail in 1922. The committee concluded that the Arab perspective had been downplayed and that as of 1918, the British government had no authority to ignore the views of the existing inhabitants in what would become Palestine.Barbour, pp. 200, 201 However, the two sides failed to agree on the exact meaning of some of the territorial references, particularly whether or not "portions of Syria lying to the west of the districts of Damascus, Hamah, Homs and Aleppo cannot be said to be purely Arab, and must on that account be excepted from the proposed delimitation" included Palestine.Cohen. p. 232; Abcarius. p. 205; Survey. p. 50. "unable to reach agreement upon an interpretation of the correspondence"; Marlowe. p. 216