PALESTINE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 254, 26 October 1945, Page 4

PALESTINE

The Rev. C. W. Chandler and Mr. J. Victor Macky, in their efforts to convince us that the Jewish, or, rather, Zionist claim for a national home in Palestine is justified, ignore the fact that a Jewish national home already exists in that country. The present agitation comes, not from the selfish Arab landowners, but from the wealthy and powerful Zionist organisation, which is not content with the national home as at present established. The new demand is for the formation of an independent Jewish State. The sufferings of the Central and Eastern European Jews, a recital of the benefits expected to accrue to the Arabs, a description of the return from Babylon in 538 8.C., and the suggestion that those who support the present demands are certain to prosper, are not valid .reasons for ousting the Arabs from their ancestral lands. In any case, it is by no means certain that the establishment of an independent Jewish State is in the best interests of the Jewish religious community as a whole. The Arabs, on the other hand, have made Palestine their home for nearly two thousand yearS. All this is of no consequence to Zionists and those who have fallen under the weight of Zionist propaganda. Though the Arabs object to the formation of a Jewish State because it would make them a subject people in their own land, they must be forcibly subdued, together with the whole Moslem world if necessary, by the Armed Forces of the British Commonwealth—all this for the furtherance of the territorial ambitions of the world Zionist organisation. One wonders where it will all end. There is no justice or honour in' using our strength or influence to dispossess the Arabs of their land for the benefit of a small section of those of Jewish faith who regard themselves as members of a separate nation, owing no true allegiance to the countries in whkh they now reside. It should be realised, and cannot be stressed too strongly, that, as Mandatory Power, our prime duty is to assist the Arabs in every way. to protect and preserve their political and religious rights, and to bring them, as soon as possible, to the realisation of their own national aspirations. A. L. GIBSON.