Collection of Documents and Letters from the Estate of Albert Montefiore Hyamson - Anti-Zionist Plan Submitted to ...

Collection of Documents and Letters from the Estate of Albert Montefiore Hyamson - Anti-Zionist Plan Submitted to the Anglo-American Committee of Enquiry and Letters to and from J.L. Magnes - 1940s
About 45 documents, letters and paper items from the estate of Albert Montefiore Hyamson, head of the immigration department of the British Mandate government who sought to prevent the partition plan for Palestine. Jerusalem and London, 1942-1948. English.
Albert Montefiore Hyamson (1875-1954), English historian and public figure, an opponent of the partition plan for Palestine. As part of his work he acted to restrict Jewish immigration, maintained contacts with Arab statesmen and drew up an alternative plan to partition, based on an Arab state with autonomy for the Jews (the "Hyamson-Newcombe Plan"). In 1945 he took part in a research group created by the Chatham House institute, which submitted its recommendations to the Anglo-American Committee of Enquiry on Palestine.
The present collection includes:
* About 25 documents, reviews, recommendations and other materials, typewritten and stenciled, documenting the activities of the research group, including: "A Constitution for Palestine", a document detailing a solution to the Palestine problem and the committee's recommendations; an early draft of this document, with handwritten changes and additions; a survey prepared by Hyamson of the existing form of government in Palestine; a document with guiding principles for writing a constitution for Palestine; a list of candidates to participate in the research group (some of the candidates' names are marked in pen, on the margins); and more.
* About 20 items from the correspondence between Hyamson and Judah Leon Magnes, president of the Hebrew University and one of the founders of "Brit Shalom", including: eight letters from Magnes to Hyamson, signed in his hand (three handwritten letters, the others typewritten); "Jewish-Arab Cooperation in Palestine", a typewritten article sent by Magnes for Hyamson's review prior to publication; nine typewritten letter copies; and more.
In Magnes's letters, sent in the years 1945-1947, he refers, among other things, to the killing of children by the Hagana as part of the organization's "punishment actions", to the proposal to found a Jewish-Arab council for resolving the conflict, to the emigration of Jews from Palestine, to the need to provide immigration visas to Jews (regardless of the establishment of a binational state) and other issues.
Enclosed: newspaper clippings and a few handwritten notes.
Size and condition vary. Good overall condition. Folding marks. Creases and slight defects to margins of some of the items. Handwritten inscriptions (English) on some of the items.