local Conservative & Unionist Association declined to support him, unlike the local National Liberals, and instead adopted as its candidate Randolph Churchill, the son of Winston Churchill, who had emerged as a prominent Conservative critic of the government. However, MacDonald won the by-election and returned to Parliament. MacDonald retained his position after Baldwin's and MacDonald's final retirements in 1937. With the new prime minister, Neville Chamberlain, MacDonald set about negotiating a new set of agreements with the Irish Free State to resolve disputes over trade, compensation and the Treaty Ports which the United Kingdom still retained. Although the issue of Northern Ireland could not be agreed, all other matters were settled, and MacDonald won many plaudits. Palestine In May 1938, Chamberlain moved him back to the Colonial Office, a move that was now seen as a promotion because of the increased prominence of the position, given the situation in the British Mandate of Palestine. In October, the new Dominions Secretary, Lord Stanley, died; given that this was a sensitive period for the work of the Dominions Office, and an experienced pair of hands was required for the post, MacDonald was appointed to succeed him, in addition to the post he already held. In January, he relinquished the Dominions Office. In 1939, MacDonald oversaw and introduced the so-called MacDonald White Paper which aimed at the creation of a unified state in Palestine, with controls on Jewish immigration. The White Paper argued that since over 450,000 Jews had been settled in the Mandate, the terms of the Balfour Declaration had now been met and that an independent Jewish state should not be established. When the White Paper was debated in Parliament on 22–23 May 1939, many politicians objected to its central recommendations. Winston Churchill noted, '"After the period of five years no further Jewish immigration will be permitted unless the Arabs of Palestine are prepared to acquiesce in it". Now, there is the breach; there is the violation of the pledge; there is the abandonment of the Balfour Declaration; there is the end of the vision, of the hope, of the dream.' The League of Nations Permanent Mandates Commission held that the White Paper was in conflict with the terms of the Mandate that had been put forth. The outbreak of the Second World War suspended any further deliberations. It has been suggested that MacDonald and Chamberlain took that course of action