A NEW ANGLE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 14 April 1939, Page 7

A NEW ANGLE

“ZIONISM AND PALESTINE” ARAB OPPOSITION TO JEWISH NATIONAL HOME ADDRESS BY MR E. LUCIE-SMITH A new angle on the generally accepted idea of the present position in Palestine and the prolonged strife between the Arabs and the Jews, was given by >lr E. Lucie-Smith, former Deputy-Superintendent of Police in Palestine, in a talk to the Nelson Rotary Club. The speaker's subject was "Zionism and Palestine," and as one with the qualification of having resided there and having held a responsible administrative office, he briefly traced the cause of the past two years’ disturbances, and the attitude of the British Government. He expressed the opinion that it would have been better had the process of assimilation of the Jews by Christian nations continued, instead of trying to establish a national home for them. ‘With Germany anti Italy making their great drive to the East and Palestine strategically covering the Suez Canal: with Germany making open war on the Jews and Palestine the ‘Hope of Israel'; with the allegiance of the whole Arabian Peninsular in the balance and the treatment of the Moslem population of Palestine the focus of all Moslem eyes, the march of events in Palestine deserve to be understood," said Mr Lucie-Smith. "Now, Zionism may be said to be a remedy for a cure. The original disease was the Diaspora or Dispersion of the Jews and a symptom of that disease was the ghetto. The abolition of the ghetto gave rise to a state of affairs which required remedying. The remedy was Zionism. "As you know the ghetto was a portion of a town, specially set aside for the Jews and throughout Europe the Jews were for centuries permitted to live in the ghettos only—and even then under varying restrictions. such as being within the walls of the ghetto from sunset to sunrise, to wear some distinguishing mark on their clothing and so on. The object of the ghetto system was isolation. Its result was persecution—but persecution of such a kind as to weld the Jewish race more firmly together. Jewish culture and the Jewish faith flourished in th 3 ghettos. "But the Jew is highly adaptable and a good mixer and it is natural that, having no country of his own. on the abolition of the ghetto, he rapidly became absorbed into the community in which he found himself, with the result that by the second half of the 19th century, in many countries, the Jews were definitely losing their individuality as a race. Zionism aimed at remedying this loss of individuality by giving the Jews a National Home of their own. "The British Government was always sympathetic to the movement and they even made a tentative offer „ of land in East Africa for the purpose of such a National Home, and the ofTer was very seriously considered by the leaders of the movement though they ultimately refused it. Palestine, at that time was in the hands of the Turk and a few parcels of land were bought there, largely through the bobnty of the Rothschild family, and these lands

j were farmed and colonised by Jews, i employing more often than not. A»*ab : labourers. This loyalty to Palestine by I their leaders did much to enhance the j idealistic regard of the masses of Jew 1 ry for the land of the Bible. H’EIZMMAN’S REQUEST •Then came the Great War. In the dark days of Germany’s submarine campaign, the British Government were face to face with defeat when they found they could not import a ! necessary ingredient for the manufac- * turc of high explosive. At their wits end. they turned to a distinguished 1 chemist. Dr Chaim Weizmann. a Jew. land Wcizman ultimately succeeded in j extracting what was required from the ( homely potato. When asked to name his own reward for this signal service to the Empire and the Allies. Weizman J replied. ‘For myself I want nothing but for my people I want the land of their ’ dreams/ The result was the Balfour ' Declaration of the 2nd November 1917 in which His Majesty's Government : undertok to facilitate the establishment of a National Home for the Jews in Palestine. That undertaking was later implemented in the mandate granted by the League of Nations. It should be noted that this mandate is an entirely one-sided affair. That is to say. nothing is asked of the Jews in return and it is of interest that when the possibility of war between ourselves and Italy arose over the Abyssinian affair. Weizman propounded the axiom ‘Empires are temporary, Zionism is eternal.’ “Geographically. Palestine is a narrow strip of land about the area of Wales. It has no natural wealth either in minerals or agriculture and the majority of its inhabitants scratcii the barest of bare livings out of a wilderness of rock, stone and sand, bui it is the scene of the glory of the Jews and it contains the site of Solomon’s Temple and the resting place of the Ark of the Covenant, and all that part of Jewry which has not been absorbed I by the Christian nations with whom ! they dwell, still look to it as their Promised Land “.In 1922 Palestine supported a population of about 750.000. of whom 83.000 were Jews and the greatest majority Moslem Arabs. The Arabs had occupied the land since the Crusades and it is difficult to reconcile the Balfour Declaration and the mandate with the principle of self-determination of smaller nations, enunciated by President Wilson and accepted by the Conference of Versailles. One hear.- | talk of the Jews’ historic rjght to the country—Mussolini has as much historic right to Britain in view of the Roman occupation on Germany to ; France in view of the Empire of Charlemagne the Great. With the principle of self-determination accepted, the only right of the Jews to Palestine would be

by the invitation of the Arabs. "You have probably recently seen references in the press to the MacMahon correspondence with King Hussein of the Hedjaz. This correspondence took, place two years before the Balfour Declaration and its object was to raise the Arabs against the Turks. King Hussein was out to make a bargain ana lie refused to raise the standard of revolt until he was told what the Arabs would get out of it if the Allies were successful. Sir Henry, on behalf of the British Government promised them independence with the exception of that part of the country lying to the west of Damascus. This was Syria and ! t was reserved for the French. To justify the Balfour Declaration, the Government then stated that Palestine was included in the area excepted, but the letters are written in Arabic and the Arabs maintain that it was not. ARABS RESENT BALFOUR DECLARATION # "The Arabs of Palestine, whilst liking the English and wishing to be under British mandate, strongly resented the Balfour Declaration. But they consoled themselves at first with the looseness of its wording and hoped that the ‘National Home’ referred to. might be whittled down, possibly to an autonomous Jewish city with the necessary institutions to maintain Jewish culture and a clearly-defined minority status for Jews in the rest of Palestine. They frequently pointed out that the ‘National Home' was to be in Palestine according to the Declaration—not that Palestine was to be the National Home: and they appeared to have some grounds for their hopes in the fact that for more than 10 years, whenever they protested sufficiently vehemently against Jewish immigration, immigration was stopped by the Government. Further. Lord Balfour himself visited Palestine and Syria in 1025. It was necessary to take abnormal precautions for his safety in Palestine whilst, in Syria, there were serious demonstrations (resulting in loss ol' life) and Balfour had to be hurried on to a warship at Beirut for his own safety. The old gentleman was quite broken up by the events and is reported to have exclaimed 'But I never knew they relt like this about it! It is only an experiment, ana if they don't want Jewish assistance, they can do without it.' "It is quite possible that the policy of the Balfour Declaration was originally conceived as an experiment, and this is rather borne out by the vagueness of the wording of the Declaration, the intention at the time having been to define the word ‘national home’ at a later date, just so much to the advantage of the Zionists as circumstances and the Arabs of Palestine rendered feasible. But our commitments increased far too rapidly to wait on a Government definition. We brought the Jews in. and the Jews brought money and work and ideals, and were very soon able to set up a case in justice on their side to oppose to the just cause of the Arabs. They were able to say. ‘Look at what v/e have invested in the country at your invitation. You cannot now allow that investmnet—moral as well as material—to be wrecked. Every new immigrant brought into the country, every pound invested in it; every Jewish life lost increases the,force of that argument. At the same time, these very factors increase the rancour of the Arabs—not only on account of the Jewish footing in the country which they imply, but also because neither capital nor immigrants are recruited without advertisement, and such advertising naturally attributes the widest possible scope to the Balfour Declaration and implies future Jewish sovereignty in the country—and advertising cannot be kept dark. The Arab saw the immigrants arriving, he was shocked at their ways of life. He feared their economic ascendancy, and now he knew they aimed at sovereignty. In fact, Zionist advertising gave the lie to the halftruths with which for years the harassed officials of the Palestine Government endeavoured to pacify the Arab population. ADMINISTRATION OF LAW “There is no doubt in my mind that the British Government would have liked to set up a purely Jewish State with complete sovereignty in Palestine, but they did not dare say so. Instead, they have talked vaguely of a national home, and forcibly of law and order, and the protection of minorities whilst doing everything in their power to increase the Jewish economic hold on the country, and to import Jewish immigrants into it. In fact.* the policy has been to keep the Arabs quiet by any means until the Jews in Palestine were strong enough to oust them, and then to crush them without mercy. It would doubtless have been a hazardous undertaking to have declared war on the- Arabs of Palestine as soon as we had occupied the country, but such a course wouM anyhow have had the advantage of being honest, and the average official of our great colonial civil service s piepared to face considerable hardship if only he is permitted to govern honestly. The brightest feather in the cap of the colonial civil service has for generations been their impartial administration of the law. The laws of Palestine do not differentiate between race or creed—yet so high an authority as the Royal Commission which reported on the Palestine question in 1937.

in dealing with the complaints of the Jews against the British administration. recommended that every civil servant before taking up an appointment in Palestine should be thoroughly conversant with all the implications of the Mandate and the Balfour Declaration. Why? It is the duty of the civil servant to administer the law. and I suggest that the implication of such a recommendation can only be that he should not administer it impartially. “If administrative action in Palestine is required to facilitate the establishment of the National Home, that administrative action should be sanctioned by law. In other words, the laws should differentiate between Arabs and Jews—but no! Again, the British Government has not the courage to show its hand. It leaves the opprobrium of dishonesty to its official on the spot, and this dishonesty does undoubtedly take place. “There are plenty of temptations for the British Government official to favour the Jews in the carrying out of his functions. As a member of the Zionist Executive remarked to me personally when I asked him why his people had found a job for a British police officer who had been dismissed from the force: ‘We will always help those who have helped us in Palestine.’ and it is quite surprising to note the ■ number of senior British officials who. on retirement, are given directorate: o’ other lucrative employment on Jewish-conlrolied companies in England. I sometimes wonder whether the future historian who writes of the decline and fall of the British Empire will refer to the insidious virus with which the colonial civil service was innnoculated in Palestine. "It is gratifying to note that, in spite of the temptations offered to the British official in Palestine by the Zionists, the vast majority continue to carry out! their duties with impartiality. The | proof of this is that never a debate takes place in the House of Commons j or a commission enquires into conditions in Palestine, but complaints of being anti-Jewish are levelled at the unfortunate Government official. He is not anti-Jewish. He has no incentive whatever to be so. Those that are said to be anti-Jewish are merely endeav- j curing to act with impartiality towards i both races, and the Zionists honestly j believe that they are anti-Jewish be-1 cause they are not in their personal administrative actions carrying out the; Balfour promise to facilitate the establishment of a national home. And what ij the result of this threecornered tug-of-war—Jew. British and Arab? It is riot, bloodshed and sudden death. Once we were able to space out the disturbances. In fact during the whole of Lord PJumer’s High Commiss'onership there was never a riot. Now. for the last two years, it has become one oontinuous disturbance, and if it is the death-throes of the Palestine Arab nation. I fear the atmosphere of these last two years will continue into many years to come. "Our policy of deceit towards the Arabs has carried us a long way towards Jewish domination in Palestine, but the Arabs are not fools, and they have highly intelligent and well-read leaders. They see the numbers of Jews increasing, and they know perfectly well that representative Government will be granted to Palestine as soon as the Jews have a majority. I told you that in 1922 there were 83.000 Jews in Palestine. Well, to-day there are nearly 500,000. and the Arabs say: ‘Thus far, no further. Any more and you swamp us. We are fighting for our very existence. and all weapons are justified.’ EFFECT OF TERRORISM "The present disturbances started in April. 1938. Sir Arthur Wauchope was then High Commissioner, and during his term of office he had done more to further the Zionist cause than any of his predecessors. During the last year he had brought in no less than 60.Q00 Jews. Bu'. the Arabs had to be given a quid pro quo to keep them quiet, and he definitely promised them a legislative council immediately, that is. whilst they still possessed a comfortable majority in the country. The Zionists, whilst very pleased with their progress in the country, objected to paying the price of it. and had Sir Arthur's promise cancelled by Parliament. But the moderate Arab was looking on the proposed Legislative Council as his sheet anchor to save himself from beiqg svamped by this rush of Jews, and so he had to give way to the extremists, whose chief weapon was terrorism There appears to be no other weapoi , left. Officialdom may say that nothin] can be gained by terrorism, but th< fact remains that whereas there wen 80.000 immigrants in the year befon terrorism, there have been only 20.00' admitted since it started, and the stab of the country is such that very largi numbers are leaving. “Meantime, the terror is bein; fought by the British Army, and tin results, as they must always be. agains organised assassination, are poor. Twi divisions of British troops, two squa drons of the R.A.F., with auxiliar: troops, and they can achieve nothing There is no one to get at. Troops ar< driven wild with bombs and sniping and they can retaliate only on the innocent. “If you knew the conditions in whicl the army and police are working ir Palestine, you would not be able It

blame them. You all know the British soldier. Try and imagine what state of affairs could make him go berserk. That state is the result of Zionism. On the other hand, we know how the Jew is suffering not only in Palestine, but throughout Europe. And where is the solution? Surely it would have been preferable if Zionism had never been, and if the process of the assimilation of the Jews by the Christian nations had been permitted to continue, and so have strengthened the nations and abolished for ever the Jewish question.” You all have seen. I have no doubt. How many people go about With puffed-up eyes, and noses red. A heavy feeling in the head. Tis wondrous strange to me that these Should riot endeavour to appease These ills, which :'.e.y so oft endure. By using ''Woods’ Great Peppermint Cure.”