Our Difficult Mandate in Palestine

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 45, 16 November 1929, Page 21

Our Difficult Mandate in Palestine

_ ___ _, HAT, it is asked, does Great Britain gain from the mandate A VT 1 in the Holy Land and in Mesopotamia? Hard business is \ A / the note of the newer Imperialism. It has no mission of VV Civilisation. It will not bear the white man’s burden, says the “Church Times.” “All it wants is the full white man’s profit. And there is a considerable number of politicians who would welcome a far more wholesale whittling down of responsibility than is entailed by the handing back of mandates to the authorities in Geneva. + ' “The belief that the English possess some peculiar qualities that ma e them fitter than the men of other races to govern subject peoples, and tha they have received a Divine mission to over-lord their fellows, has gro unpopular. And it is forgotten that responsibility once having been assumed cannot be easily repudiated without the immense loss of prestige on the side, and, on the other, gross injustice to the subject races. “If, through its representatives at Geneva, Great Britain were deciare that it is no longer able to keep order in Palestine, Europe wOll not, of course, dream of leaving the Holy Land without an over-lord to protect the Holy Places and to keep the peace between Syrian and Jew. J lie would then be a mighty wrangle as to who the over-lord should be. “France is the recognised protector of Latin Christians in the i, Fast and France, as the mandatory Power, might be acceptable at the Vatican but it certainly would not be'acceptable to Signor Mussolini. The great majority of the Latin monks in Palestine are Italian Franciscans, ihe Latin Patriarch is an Italian prelate. It has frequently been suggested that Palestine is an admirable country for Italian colonists. “So Italy might well be given the mandate. But neither France nor Italy would be acceptable to the Greek Orthodox, nor, indeed, to the Zionists, even if either Power was willing to pledge itself to the policy of the Jewish National Home. Certainly the Zionists would bitterly resent the immigration of Italians. Indeed, it may even be suggested that the return of the Turk is the only practical alternative to British administration. But no British government can regard withdrawal as practical politics. “There may, of course, come a time when it will be absolutely impossible to endure the strain, and there might be at once an effort to establish European co-operation in the administration of a country with the peace of which Europe as a whole is concerned. An efficient gendarmerie is obviously

necessary. Why not an international gendarmerie recruited from the subjects of the great Powers, each power being responsible for the payment of its nationals? Why should not Great Britain, while clearly determined to fulfil her obligations, invite European co-operation?” “The Vatican resents the fact that the most important interests in the Christian Holy Places are controlled by the Greek Orthodox Church, and, ever since the mandate was given to Great Britain, it has agitated for a revision of the present system,” says the writer of the “Londoner’s Diary in the ’’Evening Standard.” . , T< - r “Obviously the transfer of the Palestine mandate to the Italian Government will imply not only the aggrandisement of Italy, but also the ascendancy of the Catholic Church over the Orthodox Church, thus adding to the present racial and religious difficulties in Palestine a revival of those rivalries which have been a blot on the history of the Christian Holy Places. “There is reason to believe that America, which has always been interested in the leadership of the Christian Churches, might be willing to take the mandate. „ “This would be an excellent solution, although here, too, religious difficulties might arise. ... , “Nevertheless, the Orthodox Church is in a strong position, as t bulk of the property rights in the Holy Places is in its bands. “Most of our trouble in Ireland was made because we allowed I otestant and Catholics to maintain a sectarian civil war, am cause feud was kept artificially alive for political exploitation, writes Mr. J. B. Hobman, in the “Yorkshire Observer." ...AhiiicM “We must not allow the fanaticism of primitive Arabs to be mobi Used and exploited in resistance to the British mandate, and to avoid dang we must have officials there who accept full responsibility for our task in .uppnos » a. to Zionism by pious and patriotic Jews, and, to put ion no inefflcieny ground, we cannot afford to risk our good name by an exhibition of inefficie "* “‘’-"“line Is . ln.stepsl.lp In m ** Arab, ~»<! Christi™ must be sought to mate or MesUpo, .( »» * th.U bridge between Europe and Asia —’a new Judea, as * GOI * C u ’ ‘poised between East and West, a Covenant of Reconciliation.