ABSTRACT
The Labour government’s Palestine policy provides a classic case of a political party reneging on its election promises – all the more cynical since the party’s ministers had sat in Churchill’s coalition for 5 years and were quite familiar with the problems involved. In its 1945 election campaign, the party promised that it would rescind the 1939 White Paper, and gave “its solemn pledge” that it would not stop the Jews from becoming a majority in Palestine. At the party’s annual conference in 1945, held on 24 May, shortly before the general election, Hugh Dalton, who would become Chancellor of the Exchequer, stated:
It is morally wrong and politically indefensible to impose obstacles to the entry into Palestine now of any Jews who desire to go there. We consider that Jewish immigration into Palestine should be permitted without the present limitations.
