PALESTINE UNREST

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 June 1936, Page 5

PALESTINE UNREST

RAID ON AIRPORT. I i:v c\':i:: ri. ess assn. —copyright.] (Recd. June 17, 1 p.m.). JERUSALEM. June 16. Arabs made a night raid on Lydda airport and Ramleh broadcasting station. They were repulsed by the guards, after burning lorries and a storehouse. LAWRENCE AND TREATY. LONDON, June 16. The "News-Chronicle's’’ Jerusalem correspondent. says: 'rhe propaganda in the Jewish struggle has thrown up the mime of Lawrence of Arabia. It is alleged that Lawrence mistranslated for the late King Feisul the ArabJ.iwish Treaty which was signed in London in 1919, and which was recently published. Doctor Weizmann, Jewish leader, has produced a. copy of the Treaty as a. proof that King Feisul had strongly sympathised with the proposal for a Jewish national home in. Palestine; but the Arabs declare that this document is a, Jewish forgery. This is improbable, but it is suggested, on photostatic copies of the Treaty that Lawrence mistranslated the Treaty, and did so because he realised that unless King Feisul could be forced into giving the Jews their demands, he could not fulfil his dream of a great Arab empire. King Feisul was unable to read English. He added a protective footnote, which Lawrence translated on Dr. Weizmann’s copy, and King Feisul signed it. It erad thus “If the Arabs are established, as 1 have asked in the manifesto addresser! to

the British Foreign Secretary, I shall carry out this agreement.” The photo:tatic. copy of ‘King Feisul’s Arabic footnote, shows that he wrote: "Should the Arabs obtain their independence as I have asked in the manifesto addressed to the British Foreign Secretary, I shall carry out this agreement.” It is said that Lc.wrenc ■. as a faultless. Arabic scholar, could not have made the faulty translation. It is accordingly suggested that, if Lawrence “mellowed” King Feisul’s footnote he also almost certainly toned down th-' Zionist aspirations as pre-

- nlo.q to King Feisttl. The Moslem Coitiicil supports this view,'declaring when it was hinted that a Treat.'.' eyi.-.t-erl. that King Feisttl telegraphed denying his sic,mat tiro. 'J’liis telegram of King Feisul’s is now in the possession of Had; Bay, who was a signatory to the Treaty, and who is at present kept interned in connection with the disorders.