Arthur Creech Jones

1891 - 1965

British colonial secretary.

A member of the Labour Party and an expert on imperial issues, Arthur Creech Jones served as colonial secretary in Clement Attlee's government from 1946 to 1950. In this capacity, he was formally responsible for the British administration of Palestine, although the primary determinant of government policy there was the Foreign Office, headed by Ernest Bevin. Creech Jones was involved in discussions and negotiations over the report of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry into the Problems of European Jewry and Palestine (1946), the termination of the British mandate over Palestine, the transfer of responsibility to the United Nations, the partition of Palestine between Jews and Arabs, and the resettlement of European Jewish refugees in Palestine. Although mildly pro-Zionist, he presided over a British policy that incurred the violent opposition of the Zionist movement.

Bibliography

Louis, William Roger. The British Empire in the Middle East1945 - 1951: Arab Nationalism, the United States, and Post-war Imperialism. Oxford, U.K.: Clarendon, 1984.

— BERNARD WASSERSTEIN