1 FEBRUARY 1975, Page 5

British Israel

Sir: Gerald Ellis raises a historically interesting question when in his letter (January 18) he asks: "Should we not ask Israel to re-join the British Commonwealth?"

The planning of a white dominion was, of course, the main moving idea behind the Balfour Declaration, for it was then generally felt that it was in the interests of an Imperial Britain to have a reliable white Jewish state in the Middle East. Whether or not this is still so, is now one of history's intriguing but unanswered questions.

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