Book reviews

Selwyn Ilan Troen and Benjamin Pinkus, eds., Organizing Rescue: National Jewish Solidarity in the Modern Period, London, Frank Cass, 1992, pp. xi, 424.

Idith Zertal, From Catastrophe to Power: Jewish Illegal Immigration to Palestine 1945–1948 (Hebrew). Tel Aviv: Am Oved Publishers, 1996. 674 pp.; notes; bibliography; index.

Yoav Gelber, Jewish‐Transjordanian Relations, 1921–48, London: Frank Cass, 1997. 320 pp., glossary, sources and bibliography, index.

Moshe Shemesh, The Palestinian Entity, 1959–1974; Arab Politics and the PLO, Second (Revised) Edition, London: Frank Cass, 1996. xxiii, 433pp., bibliography, index.

Yeshayahu A. Jelinek, ed., Zwischen Moral und Realpolitik: Deutsch‐israelisch Bezeihungen 1945–1965: Eine Doku‐mentensammlung. Gelingen: Bleicher Verlag, 1997. 687 pp.

Angelika Timm, Jewish Claims Against East Germany: Moral Obligations and Pragmatic Policy. Budapest: Central European University Press, 1997, xi + 291pp.     

Spartan dependence on Laurion lead

This article presents contextual evidence for the interpretation of lead isotope analysis (LIA) of artefacts from the Archaic Greek Mediterranean. In particular, I make a response to Wood’s suggestion in Archaeometry (2022, first view, ‘Other ways to examine the finances behind the birth of Classical Greece’) that the end of the production of lead votive figurines in Sparta might have been caused by Athenian restrictions to Laurion lead exports, drawing on new LIA of the Spartan lead votives and wider considerations concerning the trade, cost and volume of lead in the 7th to 5th century bce Mediterranean.     

An Acutely Embarrassing Affair: Whitehall and the Indian-South African Dispute at the United Nations (1946)

ABSTRACT

Before the Second World War it was a cardinal Commonwealth principle that intra-imperial disputes must be kept away from international fora. Yet in 1946 the not-yet-independent India complained to the United Nations about South African legislation discriminating against people of Indian origin. It did so without seeking Britain's approval, and went on to level fierce criticism at Britain's opposition to the UN General Assembly's discussion of the matter.

This article explains the circumstances which led to these events; uncovers the divergent responses of the relevant British government departments – the India Office, the Dominions Office, and the Foreign Office – and shows how they were resolved; depicts the way in which Britain's delegation to the General Assembly handled the matter; and discusses the significance and consequences of the dispute for South Africa and for Anglo-Indian relations.