PALESTINE PROBLEM

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 127, 25 November 1938, Page 9

PALESTINE PROBLEM

COMMONS DEBATE

HOME FOR THE JEWS

MINISTER'S WARNING

NO GENERAL ADMISSION

(British Official Wireless.) (Received November 25, 10.45 a.m.) " RUGBY, November 24 The Colonial Secretary', Mr. Malcolm Mac Donald, opening the debate in tlie House of Commons on Palestine, said it had not been possible, pending the publication of the Woodhead report, to make a constructive effort for peace. Meanwhile it had been necessary to concentrate on dealing with the campaign of assassination which had developed into an Arab revolt against the British authorities. The forces now at the disposal of the Government were steadily re-estab-lishing order.

"We all know that certain interested propagandists have been levelling many foul charges against the conduct of our troops," Mr. Mac Donald said. "I see a good many things at the Colonial Office, but I have never seen any evidence in support of those charges. On the contrary, the inoccupation of the Old City of Jerusalem a few weeks ago was an example of the

way in which British troops can with perfect humanity, as well as perfect success, conduct a delicate military operation among a civilian populatibn. But the real problem in Palestine is not military but political. Our troops can restore order —they cannot .restore peace. The -Government has got to do that." JEWISH SETTLERS' WORK. The problem of Palestine, he said, was stated brilliantly in the report of the' Peel Commission. First of all there were the Jews. Nearly two thousand years ago their home was Palestine. Since then they had been dispersed and scattered over the face of the earth but during the last twenty years many of them had been hastening back to Palestine under the terms of the mandate entrusted by over fifty * nations to Britain. Since 1922 over a quarter of a million Jews had entered Palestine and settled there.

Mr. Mac Donald added that their achievements had been remarkable. They had turned sand and dust into orange groves. ..ney had created a new city, which housed today 140,000 souls, where there was previously,only bare seashore. The Jews were in Palestine not on sufferance but by right, and today, under the lash of persecution in Central Europe their eagerness to return to their own home land had been multiplied a hundredfold. The tragedy of' a people who had no country had never been so deep as it had been this week.

"I must utter this word of warning," 'said the Minister. "When we promised the Jews a national home in Palestine we never anticipated this fierce persecution in Europe. We had made no promise that that country should be a home for everyone who was seeking to escape from such an imminent calamity, and even if there was no other population, Palestine, with its rather meagre soil, could not in fact support more than a fraction of those Jews who might wish to escape from Europe. The problem of refugees in Central Europe cannot be settled in Palestine. It has got to be settled over a far wider field. The British Empire, of course, can make its contribution. It is making a contribution today, but at the present time, despite disturbance, emigrants are going to Palestine week after week at the rate of about 1000 monthly."

POLICY ALREADY STATED

The Government, said Mr. Mac Donald, announced a short time ago the next definite stage in its Palestine policy, namely, discussions between Arabs and Jews in London, and it could not do anything now which would prejudice the chance of these discussions ending successfully. It was in the best interests of the Jews themselves that the future policy in Palestine should as far as possible be based on a wide agreement.

* Referring to the Arabs, Mr. MacDonald recalled that they had lived in the country for many centuries: They were not consulted when the Balfour Declaration was made, nor when the mandate was framed, and during these post-war years they had watched with an occasional angry protest this peaceful invasion of an alien people. They wondered whether a halt was ever going to be called to it, and feared that it was £*oing to be their fate, in the land of their birth, to be dominated by an energetic new-com-ing people—dqminated economically, politically, and commercially. A great many people regarded the Arab agitation as a mere protest by a gang of bandits, and it was true that many Arabs who had taken part most eagerly in the trouble were cut-throats of the worst -type.* But there was much more than that in the Arab movement. They must recognise that many people in the Palestinian movement were moved by genuine patriotism. . Mr. Mac Donald proceeded to refer to the growth of the Arab.population, which, he said, was now 990,000, and was estimated to reach a million and a half in twenty years.

REMOVING ARAB FEARS.

Mr. Mac Donald added that the Arabs could not say that the Jews were driving them out of their country. Had no single Jew come into Palestine after

1918 the Arab population today would still have been round about 600,000. It was because the Jews came bringing modern health services and other advantages that Arab men and women who would have been dead were alive today and Arab children who would never have drawn breath had been born and had grown strong.

It was not merely the Jews who benefited by the Balfour Declaration. The Arabs also had benefited very greatly. He knew that the Arabs feared to lose their freedom and be dominated by the Jews if the process went on.

"We cannot put the Jecs under the domination of the Arabs in Palestine, he said, "but also, unless we can remove that Arab fear that they are going to be put under the domination of the Jews, we shall have to face a hostile people over a great area and we shall have to lock up a great part of our army in Palestine.

"We have solemn obligation-, to both peoples in Palestine. On the one hand we are pledged to facilitate Jewish emigration into Palestine under suitable conditions and to encourage the settlement of Jews on the land.

"On the other hand, we are pledged to see that the weight and position of the Arab population is not prejudiced. RECONCILING TWO OBLIGATIONS.

"How are we to reconcile justly those two obligations? That is the problem we have got to solve. Ido not think it ought to rest on the Government alone to find a solution. It ought to rest also on the other parties concerned— the Arabs and the Jews. They have both got to make concessions to each other. If they would only be willing to do that peace and prosperity would return to both parties in Palestine. The Government is prepared to make a supreme effort to achieve that understanding."

Mr.. Mac Donald recalled an incident twenty years ago when Dr. Chaim Weizmann, on behalf of the Zionist organisation, crossed the Jordan and conferred with King Feisul, with whom, after some months, he signed an agreement about Palestine. That was the relationship towards which they wanted to move back. The coming discussions would probably be held between the Government and each of the other parties separately, but they hoped that before long all three would gain in the discussion.

"The Government," continued Mr. Mac Donald, "will of course enter these discussions bound by its obligations under the Mandate to the Jews and to the Arabs, and bound by its duty, to Parliament and other members of the League of Nations and the United States, and shall not seek to prevent Arab or Jewish representatives from offering argument as to why the mandate should be discontinued."

He hoped it would be possible to start the London discussions within the next few weeks or at the latest at the beginning of January.