Manawatu Evening Standard. SATURDAY, APRIL 5, 1930. THE TROUBLE IN PALESTINE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 110, 5 April 1930, Page 8

Manawatu Evening Standard. SATURDAY, APRIL 5, 1930. THE TROUBLE IN PALESTINE.

The mandatory obligations incurred by tbe Mother Country over the Government of Palestine have been the cause of considerable trouble to the Home authorities. That trouble arises out of the conflicting claims of the Arab and Jewish, races;- and centres around the Zionist movement having for its objective the establishment of a .Jewish autonomous State in Palestine, as the early home of the race. Jerusalem, the capital of Palestine, has been in the hands of the Moslems since 1244 A.D., and for 400 years —from 1517 to 1917, when it was surrendered to General Allenby—under Turkish rule. To Jewish, Christian and Moslem peoples alike the city has sacred associations which cause it to be.looked upon with reverence and affection. At the .1922 census the city had a population of G 2,578, and the population of the. country was returned * at 757,182, of whom 590,890. were Mohammedans, 73,024 Christians and 83,794 Jews, with 9747 professing other faiths. Later statistics place the approximate population at 778,3b'J, exclusive of Bedouins numbering about 103,000. The Moslem, is, therefore, the predominant religion, and the members of that faith view with suspicion and resentment the attempts that are being made, under the Zionist movement, to re-create Palestine'as a,Jewish State. Since 1919 (according to ■. Whitaker) about 60,000 immigrants (mostly Jews) have settled in the country. In 1927 Polish, Russian and Rumanian Jewish immigrants entered the country to the number of 2713, but-the conditions of settlement could not have -been.considered too satisfactory ;’; by the earlier settlers, ha-5071 Jews emigrated from Palestine that year. A serious outbreak occurred last August, originating in an attack made upon the Jews assembled at the Wailing Place, by Arabs, and in the disturbances which followed in other parts of the country over 200 persons lost their lives and more than 300 were injured. A Commission of Inquiry set up .to ascertain the facts connected with, these disturbances, representative of each'of the three parties in the House of Commons, with Sir Walter Shaw, a former Chief Justice of the. Straits Settlement,, has .now presented its report. In that report, it is pretty conclusively' shown that the trouble arose- through the clashing of interests : between' the Arabs and the Jews, find that the outbreak ‘ ‘neithe:- ’ was nor waS

intended to' be a revolt against British authority.” The commission further considers that the Palestine Government “has throughout discharged, to the best of its ability, the difficult task of maintaining impartiality between two peoples whose leaders have displayed little tendency' to compromise.” But the main cause of the trouble is clearly seen in’ the commission’s finding, that, while “Jewish enterprise and immigration : . . have conferred material benefits on Palestine in which the Arabs have shared,” the “Zionist claims have been calculated' to create among the Arabs apprehensions of loss of livelihood v.and political subjection.” Those apprehensions have arisen from the “evictions of Arab cultivators upon the sale of the. land they occupied without alternative-land having been provided,” as a result of which “a landless 'discontented class is being created which is a potential source of danger.” This displacement of Arab cultivators of the soil by immigrants, probably of a more industrious type, may, in the long run, mean increased production, and greater prosperity from that standpoint, to the country generally, but it cannot fail to give rise to grave economic difficulties in the not far distant future. A population, overwhelmingly. Arab in character, iis not likely to submit quietly to continued evictions from the lands they have ‘ occupied for years, even where Jewishj land companies buying the land have treated them fairly in the matter of compensation, if they are not provided with other lands.. The ■problem presented by over immigration is by no means easy of solution.

THE ZIONIST MOVEMENT

Since the days of the dispersion, the Jews have been a scattered race, with jio land they could claim as their own. In the various countries of Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America and Oceania they are to-day estimated to number over 16,000,000, the majority being' located in Europe. The racial sentiment, however, remains firmly embedded in the minds, of all orthodox Jews, : who have always entertained the hope of re-establishing their race on a national basis in Zion, or Palestine. But it was not until last century that political Zionism came to be directly advocated by Theodor Herzl, who, in 1896 r : published a'pamphlet, “The Jewish State, 5 ’ in which he advocated the setting' up of an autonomous Je,wish State, preferably in Palestine. The sympathy arousedj. ty the publication of-that pamphlet led to the holding of the Zionist Congress which met at' Basle 'in- Switzerland, in August; 1927:! With the support pf many young men and many of the bid lovers of Zion,, the movement for establishing the Jewish State in Palestine was pressed forward, although it met with a good deal of opposition from VYestern rabbis and the wealthier class of Jews. The old nationalistic Sentiment -was revived, a Jewish Hag was raised, a worldwide organisation was established, and a financial corpora; tion—the Jewish Colonial Trust, a national fund for the purchase ... of ’ land—was created.. At a later conference (the sixth),, also held at Basle, in 1903, Dr Herzl made the announcement that the British Government which had always taken an interest in the| Zionist movement, had offered to facilitate the sending of a commission to inquire into the practicability of establishing an autonomous Jewish settlement in British South Africa, then known as the East African Protectorate. That offer was, however, declined by a subsequent congress of the Zionist organisation. In 1917, following General Allenby’s capture of Jerusalem, the late Eord Balfour (then Mr A. J. Balfour);. as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, informed Lord Rothschild that “the British" Government viewed with favour the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine” and would use their best endeavours to facilitate .the achievement of this object. While that declaration gave no definite promise that such a State would be formed' (the war; was - still in progress) it was received with great enthusiasm by the Jewish communities generally in all parts of the world, and the Zionists set to work to' claim, in the name of the Jewish people, the granting of the mandate over Palestine -to Great Britain.' Their proposals were submitted to the Peace Conference, held in Paris in February, 1919, and were accepted by the Supreme Council of the Allies at San Remo in April, 1920. The mandate to Great Britain was subsequently approved by the Council of.the LeagUe of Nations in 1922, and came into force the following year.' Since 1919, as already stated, the Jewish population of Palestine' has .been .augmented ■by some 60,000 immigrants, and it; is that' influx which is at the root 'of the present-day trouble.