UNCROWNED KING OF PALESTINE

Southland Times, Issue 23675, 25 November 1938, Page 6

UNCROWNED KING OF PALESTINE

MUFTI’S DEFIANCE OF BRITAIN EXILED ARAB LEADER’S TERMS FOR PEACE The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, exiled leader of the Arab insurgents in the Holy Land, has promised Britain that he will guarantee peace if Jewish migration to Palestine ceases. It seems strange that an exile should be dictating terms, but the history of the Grand Mufti’s rise shows that he has never hesitated to defy British authority, says a writer in The Herald (Melbourne). There is a story of an Italian condottieri of the fifteenth century with a taste for art who used to hang his walls with paintings of his more colourful victims. Perhaps the Grand Mufti, who is head of the “Palestine Provisional Government,” the man behind the terror in the Holy Land, keeps a similar gallery of portraits—portraits of High Commissioners and statesmen who have striven to administer Palestine. Eighteen years ago Haj Amin, an unknown student, was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment by a British court. He had incited the Arabs to revolt. He never paid the penalty. He escaped to Transjordan. But Haj Amin was a Husseini, member of Palestine’s most powerful family. He was a brother of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, head of the Moslem religious community. The then High Commissioner, Sir Herbert Samuel, pardoned the fugitive. The outlaw was soon back in Jerusalem and within a few weeks was appointed by Sir Herbert to succeed his brother as Grand Mufti and President of the Moslem Supreme Council. Today he is 45 years old. For 16 years he has conducted a campaign against the mandate policy of the British Government from his seat of power in Jerusalem with £6OO a year salary from the Palestine Administration to add to his £60,000 a year of Moslem religious revenues. Only now, when terror is sweeping the land, has he been forced to transfer his headquarters to a village in Lebanon (Syria). RIOT AND REVOLT His benefactor, Sir Herbert Samuel, left Palestine in 1925. His administration was counted a success, but he left the Grand Mufti as a legacy to his successors. For three years after his departure the horizon was-clear, but on September 23, 1928, a cipud appeared no bigger than a man’s hand, a cloud that was soon to darken every corner of the land. A quarrel broke out between Jews and Arabs at the Wailing Wall. The quarrel ended in a riot. Revolt soon engulfed the country. Riot and revolt together removed Sir Harry Luke, acting High Commissioner, famous scholar and linguist with a high reputation throughout the Near East. Sir Harry was attacked at the inquiry which followed by Sir Boyd Merriman, representing the Zionists. He was transferred to Malta. He was the first sacrifice on the altar of the Mufti. Sir John Chancellor had been appointed to take over. He had 25 years’ experience as a Colonial Governor in Mauritius, Trinidad and Rhodesia. Heavy rain fell on the day he arrived in Jerusalem. It was a good augury, an augury of bountiful harvests to relieve the momentary economic depression. Sir John was hailed as the “greenfooted” Governor. A few months later he reported at Geneva that the prospect was “not favourable.” Even as he spoke rioting broke out anew. That was a surer augury of political upheaval. Together with Lord Passfield, Labour’s Colonial Secretary, he set to work to woo the Arabs. AJRoyal Commission reported that of some 87,000 rural Arab families 29.4 per cent, were landless. A Government White Paper proposed a Legislative Council, measures to develop Arab agriculture, a plan to regulate Jewish immigration. Arab Nationalists were hopeful; British Zionists were downcast. A rowdy by-election was fought in Whitechapel. Dr Chaim Weizman, president of the Jewish Agency and head of the Zionist organization, threatened resignation. He denounced the White Paper as opposed to British mandate pledges. The Government gave way to these representations. Mr Ramsay MacDonald as Prime Minister wrote a letter repudiating his Colonial Secretary’s White Paper. Lord Passfield and Sir John Chancellor had sought to win the Mufti with concessions. They had failed. Lord Passfield had to admit his failure. Sir John retired in November 1931. In his place came Sir Arthur Wauchope. He was a hard-headed Scot, 59 years old. He had been a commander of the Black Watch. FIRM ADMINISTRATION Sir Arthur was the man for the job, perhaps the most brilliant administrator Britain has ever sent to her new ungovernable dominion. Backed by Lord Swinton (then Sir Philip CUnliffeLister) at the Colonial Office, he won the respect of Jew and Arab. Disturbance broke out again in 1933, but Sir Arthur remained firmly in the saddle. In January 1936, it was announced that he would continue as High Commissioner for another five years. Sir Arthur was ready for a step forward. He proposed a plan for a Legislative Council; many of the Arabs secretly

approved. He had plans for restricting land sales to the Jews; the fellaheen were jubilant. But far away in London the plan was defeated. Mr J. H. Thomas, who had replaced Lord Swinton at the Colonial Office, backed the Legislative Council plan, and then retreated before a hostile House of Commons. And even before the plan had foundered unrest broke out in Jaffa and on April 15, 1936, a shot was fired, a Jew was killed in the Arab town of Nablus. It was 1929 again. The Arab leaders declared a general strike. Every Arab in Palestine responded. The Mufti was leader of a united people. Twenty thousand men left to reinforce the British garrison in Palestine. Order was at last restored. But not until the strike had lasted eight months, not until 800 Arabs, 80 Jews and 37 soldiers and police had been killed. Mr Ormsby-Gore was now in charge in Whitehall. Mr Thomas had gone. Mr Ormsby-Gore »had a new policy. He would permit “no concessions to violence.” He won tire applause of the Zionists. Sir Arthur Wauchope, fearful of seeing five years’ work tumble in ruins, was criticized. PARTITION PLAN As the year ended there was a lull in the shooting. Yet another Royal Commission set sail for Haifa. In January it was back irt London with a scheme for slicing the country into three—for the Arabs, for the Jews, and a part still ruled by the British. The scheme appealed little to the Jews and not at all to the Arabs. It was the signal for smouldering revolt in Palestine which soon mounted into the worst upheaval the country has known. It coincided, too, with the departure of Mr Ormsby-Gore and Sir Arthur Wauchope. Mr Ormsby-Gore gave up his post when he went to the House of Lords. Sir Arthur retired, broken by ill-health. Today three men are left to quell a rebellion. Fresh from his triumph with Mr De Valera, Mr Malcolm MacDonald was brought to the Colonial Office. Sir Harold Mac Michael, with a fine record in the Sudan and Tanganyika, works in Government House in Jerusalem. He is a nephew of Lord Curzon, and maintains a Curzon tradition. To aid them is Sir Charles Tegart, “the man of iron,” from Bengal. Before he departed for Palestine his father-in-law said: “The Mufti of Jerusalem and his friends will find that this Englishman at any rate will prove more than their match in strategy and ingenuity.” Time will show. In his village hideout in Lebanon, the uncrowned King of Palestine may count himself the most successful rebel against British authority. for more than a century.