REAL PROBLEM

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 25 November 1938, Page 5

REAL PROBLEM

NOT MILITARY BUT POLITICAL | DEBATE ON PALESTINE CONOLIAL SECRETARY’S SPEECH [British Official Wireless] (Received 25th November, 10.35 a.m.) RUGBY, 24th November. Mr Malcolm MacDonald, Secretary - of State for the Colonies, opening the : House of Commons Palestine debate, ; said that it had not been possible, pend- ; ing the publication of the Woodhead Report, to make a constructive effort for peace. It had meanwhile been . necessary to concentrate on dealing i with the campaign of assassination, which had developed into an Arab re- - volt against the British authorities. The t forces now at the disposal of the Govl ernment were steadily re-establishing order. “We all know that certain interested propagandists have been leveli ! ling many foul charges against the | conduct of our troops. I see a good I I many things at the Colonial Office, j but I have never seen any evidence to support those charges. On the | i contrary, the reoccupation of the old city of Jerusalem a few weeks ago was an example of the way in which British troops can, with per- 1 feet humanity, as well as with perfect success, conduct a delicate military operation among a civilian population. But the real problem of Palestine is not military, but political. Our troops can restore order—they cannot restore peace. The Government has to do that. “The problem of Palestine is stated brilliantly in the report of the Peel l Commission,” continued Mr MacDonald. “First of all there are the Jews. Nearly 2000 years ago their home was in Palestine. Since then they have been dispersed and scattered over the 1 face of the earth, but during the last 5 twenty years many of them have been * Hastening back to Palestine under the terms of the mandate entrusted by over fifty nationsh to Britain. Since 1922 over 250,000 Jews have entered Palestine and settled there. REMARKABLE ACHIEVEMENT Mr MacDonald add:d that their i achievements had been remarkable. • They had turned sand and dust into orange groves, and they had created a new city housing to-day 140,000 souls, where there was only bare seashore. The Jews were in Palestine not on sufferance, but by right, and to-day, under the lash of persecution of Central Europe, their eagerness to return to . their own home land had been multi- . plied a hundred-fold. The tragedy of a people who had no country had never been so deep as it had been this week. WORD OF WARNING "I must utter this word of warning,” said the Minister. "When we promised the Jews a national home in Palestine wc never anticipated this fierce persecution in Eupore. We had made no promise that that country should be a home for everyone who was seeking to escape from such mminent calamity, and even if there was no other population, Palestine, with its rather meagre soil, could not in fact support more than a fraction of those Jews who might wish to escape from Europe. The problem of refugees in Central Europe cannot be settled in Palestine. It has to be settled over a far wider field. The British Empire, of course, can make its contribution. It is making its contribution to-day, but at the present time, despite the disturbance, emigrants are going to Palestine week after week as the rate of about 1000 monthly. The Government,” said Mr MacDonald. announced a short time ago the next definite stage in its Palestine policy, namely discussions of Arabs and Jews in London, and they could not do anything now which would prejudice the chance of these discussions ending successfully. It was in the best interests of the Jews themselves that the future policy in Palestine should, as far as possible, be based on a wide agreement. ARAB POINT OF VIEW Referring to the Arabs, Mr MacDonald recalled that they had lived in the country for many centuries. They were 1 not consulted when the Balfour De- ' claration was made, nor when the man- : date was framed, and during these post- ' war years they had watched, with an occasional angry protest, this peaceful invasion of an alien people. They won- 1 dered whether a halt was ever going to be called to it. and feared that it was going to be their late, in the land of their birth, to be dominated by the energetic new-coming people—dominated economically, politically and com- ' mercially. A great many people regarded the Arab agitation as the mere protest of a gang of bandits, and it was true that many Arabs who had taken part most eagerly in th? trouble were cut-throats of the worst type, but there was much more than that in the Arab movement. They must recognise that many in the Palestinian movement were moved by genuine patriotism. Mr MacDonald proceeded to refer to the growth of Arab population, which was now 990 000. and was estimated to reach 1.250.000 in twenty years. Mr MacDonald added that the Arabs could not say that the Jews were driving them out of their country. Had no single Jew come into Palestine after 1918 the Arab population to-day would still have been round about 600.000. Tt was because the Jews hr 1 come and brought modern health services and other advantages that Arab men and | women A’ho would have been dead were alive to-day, and Arab children who would never have drawn breath had been born and grown strong. It was not merely the Jews who benefited by ’ the Balfour Declaration, the Arabs also benefited very greatly. He knew the ; Arabs feared they would lose their freedom and bo dominated by the Jews ' if the process went on SOLEMN OBLIGATIONS We cannot put the Arabs under the 1 domination of the Arabs in Palestine, but also unless we can remove that I Arab fear that they are going to be put I under the domination of the Jews we shall have to face a hostile people over great area, and we shall have to lock up a great part of our army in Palestine under the treaty. We have solemn obligations to both peoples in Palestine. On t! -• one (.and we are pledged to facilitate Jewish emigration into Palestine under suitable conditions, and to encourage settlement of Jews on the land.

“On the other hand,” Mr MacDonald' continued, “we are pledged to see that 1 the weight and position of the Arab population is not prejudiced. How are we to reconcile justly those two obligations? That is the problem we have got to solve. I do not think it ought to rest on the Government alone to find a solution. It ought to rest also on other parties concerned—on Arabs and Jews. They both have got to make concessions to each other. If they would only be willing to do that peace and prosperity would return to both parties in Palestine. The Government is prepared to make a supreme effort to achieve that understanding. Mr MacDonald recalled an incident of twenty years ago when Dr. Weizmann, on behalf of the Zionist Organisation, crossed the Jordan and conferred with King Feisal, with whom after some months he signed an agreement about Palestine. That was the relationship towards which they wanted to move back. The coming discussions would probably be held between the Government and each of the other parties separately, but they hope before long that all three would gain in the discus- “ The Government,” continued Mr MacDonald, “will of course enter these discussions bound by its obligations under the mandate to Jews and to Arabs, bound by its duty to Parliament, and other members of the League of Nations, and the United States, and shall not seek to prevent Arab or Jewish representatives from offering argument as to why the mandate should be discontinued.” He hoped it would be possible to start the London discussions within the next few weeks or at the latest at the beginning of January. LABOUR AND LIBERAL ATTITUDE Mr Herbert Morrison (Lab.) said the Opposition did not criticise the decision to call a conference. Fie thought, however, they should have some reasonable idea of the Government’s policy, and asked for an undertaking that Parliament would not, without consultation, be committed to any agreement reached. He suggested the further lifting of the restriction of immigration to permit a greater number of Jews to go there at once. Sir Archibald Sinclair (Liberal Leader) pressed for the favourable continuation of Dr. Weizmann’s suggestion for allowing 10,000 Jewish children to enter where the same number of Jewish families were willing to take them. ALLEGATIONS BY NAZI PRESS “NO TRUTH WHATEVER” 1 British Official Wireless] RUGBY, 23rd November. In the House of Commons a question addressed to the Prime Minister, Mr Chamberlain, called attention to statements which appeared yesterday in the German Press, accusing the British troops and police in Palestine, of looting, rape, murder, and torturing prisoners. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir John Simon, answering, said that there was no truth whatever in these newspaper stories. “I would repeat Mr Chamberlain's observation, in reply to a question on Monday, that the German Government must be well aware of the unfortunate effect on Anglo-German relations of tactics.” PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT’S HOPE UFA -Bv Electric Telegraph On D vnlahH WARM SPRINGS, 24th Nov. President Roosevelt expressed gratification to-day with a report which he said he had received that the number of Jews permitted to enter Palestine would be increased, and added: “I have no means of knowing the accuracy of this report, but I hope it is true.”