The Second World War and After 211
office: 'The activities have made a great impression. The authori-
ties are bewildered. . . and are waiting for instructions from
London.5 The British government had meanwhile come to the
conclusion that in determining a post-war policy for Palestine the
collaboration of the U.S.A. must be sought, since both political
parties in that country had courted the Jewish vote in the president-
ial election of 1944 by pledges of support for the full Biltmore
Programme, and President Truman had in October 1945 called
fipon the British government to open the gates of Palestine im-
mediately to 100,000 displaced Jews in Europe. Britain, with her
reduced power and authority in the world, could not afford to
continue to have American opinion irresponsibly directed
against her over Palestine. Accordingly on 13 November the
Foreign Secretary announced that it had been agreed to set up a
joint Anglo-American Committee of Enquiry, 'to examine the
position of Jews in those countries in Europe where they have been
the victims of Nazi persecution .. . and the political, economic and
social conditions in Palestine as they bear upon the problem of
Jewish immigration and settlement therein, and the well-being of
the peoples now living therein'.
The Zionists immediately denounced the Foreign Secretary's
statement, which had been accompanied by some blunt comments
^ on their recent conduct. A protest strike throughout Palestine was
'' ordered, and in Tel Aviv Jewish hooligans set fire to government
buildings. On 12 December the Inner Zionist Council announced,
'The policy to which the British government pledged itself in the
Balfour Declaration and the Mandate sprang from the recognition
that the Jewish problem can be effectively solved only by the
greatest possible concentration of Jews in Palestine and by the
restoration of Jewish nationhood.. .. The Jewish Agency .. . up-
holds the right of every Jew impelled by material or spiritual urge
to settle in Palestine___The Jewish people . .. will spare no effort,
or sacrifice until the restoration of the Jewish Commonwealth of;
; Palestine has been achieved/ As if to add point to this challenge,
the Irgun Zvai Leumi a fortnight later blew up the C.I.D. H.Q.
in Jerusalem, killing seven police and soldiers, while two more
were killed in simultaneous attacks in Jaffa and Tel Aviv. Sum-
moned to Government House, Ben Gurion and Shertok declared
that the Agency completely dissociated itself from these murderous
attacks and expressed their profound sorrow at the loss of life.