MUCH UNREST.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 199, 23 July 1937, Page 7

MUCH UNREST.

HISTORY OF MANDATE

Palestine has had a disturbed history since the British forces, under General Allenby, captured it from the Turks in 1917. Britain has controlled the country under mandate for the last 15 years, but her attempts to hold an even balance between the Arab and Jew populations, which have been commended by representatives of many nations at Geneva, have not prevented serious unrest. Last year the worst disturbances occurred. They began as an Arab strike, and lasted for six months, during which there were murder, arson, sabotage and armed attacks on British forces and Palestinian police, who were trying to maintain order. Several hundred lives were lost, and the financial loss was heavy.

It was these events which led to the appointment of the Royal Commission. in expectation of the British occupation of Palestine, Mr Balfour (later Earl Balfour), who was then Foreign Secretary, had made an important declaration of policy in November, 1917, in a letter to Lord Rothschild, of the Zionist Federation —a declaration which was later embodied in the Palestine mandate to Britain, which was approved by the League of Nations in 1922, and bad previously been approved also by the United States Congress. This letter stated that “the British Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavour to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing nonJewisli communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.” The British military administration of the country lasted from 1917 to 1920, and conferred many benefits, including sanitation, public gardens, road and bridge improvements. There were occasional small racial riots in 1920 and 1921, and a more serious outbreak in 1929! Into the 1929 disturbances an inquiry was conducted by a previous Roval Commission, and a White Paper issued in 1930 re-affirmed Britain’s intention of carrying out the Balfour declaration. Year by vear there have been inquiries into the Palestine, as into all other mandates, at Geneva; there has been some criticism of Britain, and expressions of regret at the disturbances, hut in all cases Britain’s management of the country has ultimately been warmly approved. Last year, after the most serious troubles of all, the League Assembly passed a resolution expressing full confidence in Britain’s operation of her mandate over the country. During the Inst few years many thousands of Jews from Europe have made their homes in Palestine.