Appeasement in the Middle East: the British White Paper on Palestine

The White Paper on Palestine, issued by the British Government in May 1939, adumbrated future British policy in Palestine at a time when all members of the Cabinet, including Chamberlain, had accepted the inevitability of war. Yet, while they were concerting measures for war on a global scale, the Middle Eastern theatre was of low military priority, and appeasement remained the order of the day, with the White Paper as its principal instrument. The White Paper severely restricted Jewish immigration into Palestine for the next five years and amde further, subsequent immigration dependent upon Arab consent. Britain also promised to set up an independent Palestinian State within the next ten years, if this should prove feasible.