ARABS AND JEWS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22777, 10 July 1937, Page 15

ARABS AND JEWS

OPEN DISCONTENT AIMS NOT ATTAINED WAILING WALL PROTEST By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright (Received July 0, 10.15 p.m.) JERUSALEM, July t> Commenting upon the Palestine Commission's report and the proposal for the partition of the country, Fuad Saba, secretary of the Arab Higher Committee, said : "It is too bad. There will be considerable disappointment." The Moslem leader, Nahas Hibi, declined to comment for two days. "Partition will be impossible unless Britain uses force," declared Abdul Hadi, a member of the Arab Higher Committee. "The Arabs will not yield Haifa or Tiberias for any money. It is not a matter of economics but of honour. "Would Britain sell Portsmouth to Germany? "Wo are weak and have no guns and no gas but we have the same hearts as Britons."

Tlie Arab Higher Committee has issued a manifesto complaining that under the scheme a Jewish State would be created in the most fertile part of the country. The committee is consulting Arab kings, princes and leaders of Palestine institutions in reference to future policy. It appeals to tho Arab people to "pay 210 attention to empty promises but adhere to tho Nationalist programme and maintain self-re-straint."

Neither tho Arabs nor the Jews appear willing at present to accept the report. Tho Arabs complain that they will have no harbours, and tho Jews declaro they cannot accept Zionism without Zion, or a Jewish State without Jerusalem.

There was a Jewish, assemblage at the Wailing "Wall to protest against the partition of the Holy Land. A Jew was stoned and seriously injured near Herod's Gate.

UNFRIENDLY BROADCASTS ITALY AGREES TO STOP. EASE PALESTINE SITUATION British Wireless RUGBY, July S The Foreign Secretary, Mr. Eden, in view of the impending issue of the Palestine report, a few days ago interviewed the Italian Ambassador, Count Grandi, and expressed a hope that tho Italian Government would avoid the issue from the Bari wireless station of any unfriendly broadcast comments. Count Grandi called at the Foreign Office to-day with a personal message from Signor Mussolini that 11 Duce desired in the friendliest spirit to do all he could to ease the situation. Tho Italian Government had taken all tho necessary steps to meet Mr Eden's wish.

MANDATES COMMISSION FUTURE PROCEDURE BRITAIN AND PALESTINE British Wireless RUGBY, July U The Permanent Mandates Commission has been summoned to meet at Geneva on July 30, when Mr. TV. Ormsby-Gore, accompanied by the secretary ot the Royal Commission, Mr. J. M. Martin, will lay an interim report before tho commission. Concerning the future procedure, the Times assumes that it would be the duty of the Mandates Commission to inform the League whether a case has been made out for a revision of the mandate. If the Mandates Commission and the League Council arc favourable, the British Government, it is expected, will then be asked to prepare a revised mandate, tho existing one continuing in operation in the meantime.

Jewish views on the question of the partition of Palestine are well expressed in an article on partition and its implications which appeared recently in two 'issues of tho bulletin Palestine, published by the British Palestine Committee. The writer's opinion is that freedom of entiy and settlement for Jewish individuals, sovereign status, a sound economic basis, and cultural independence, aro the fundamental needs of a Jewish national homo in Palestine on the hypothesis, of partition. "Freedom of entry and settlement imply that the area assigned to such a Jewish portion of Palestine shall bo sufficient to permit of a really largo setlemcnt," states the writer. It is clear that a partition of lalestino, which simply amounted to allowing tho Jews to continue to occupy little more than those areas. in which they are already settled, would be something which no Jew could possibly accept. "Without such (sovereign) status, tho wholo scheme is meaningless, lr the area assigned to tho Jews is to bo continued to be administered as 1 alestine is being administered at tho present moment, with immigration, land sales, hampered by continuous struggle between ourselves and tho Government, and by continuous opposition on the part of the Arabs, then wo shall be giving up something fundamental without obtaining anything of value in retU Dealing with the Arab problem, the writer says: "Any area assigned to tho Jews .... is bound to include in its population a very largo number of Arabs. They would constitute a very significant minority—if even they are a minority at all —in tho Jewish area. . . And so for a long time—how long one cannot say—we should have 'to deal with a very considerable Arab minority, and with a continuous pressure from Arabs outside tho Jewish area to enter it." . "If we get half the area of Palestine, 90 per cent of the land will bo in Arab hands," continues tho writer, discussing the land trouble. "Even if wo get only one quarter of Palestine, 80 per cent of the land will still be in Arab possession .... Land purchase for Jewish settlement may thus even become more difficult under partition than it is now." One of the most important questions dealt with by the writer is tho future status of Jerusalem. "Can wo Zionists conceive of tho Jewish national home without Jerusalem —of Zionism without Zion?" he asks. "A partition arrangement by which Jews could no longer go to settle in Jerusalem is obviously inconceivable. . . . So the only possible solution hero is that, in that area which remains under British mandate, Jewish immigration should be allowed under some sort of British control."