Wairarapa Daily Times (Established Over 60 Years.) FRIDAY, 19th JUNE, 1936. ARAB AND JEW.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 19 June 1936, Page 4

Wairarapa Daily Times (Established Over 60 Years.) FRIDAY, 19th JUNE, 1936. ARAB AND JEW.

The state of affairs in, Palestine can hardly be said to be improving. On the contrary, things appear to be getting worse. "Unrest” is rather too mild a term for a condition of which the main features are so disquieting. The trouble, always simmering, has in its more aggravated form been active for a longer time than is realised by many. It began in Jaffa a few weeks ago, when Arab highwaymen murdered a Jew. Other killings followed, and a Jewish funeral was made the occasion for an outbreak so serious as to make

it necessary to call out the troops. Disturbances have continued spasmodically ever since. Forces apparently irreconcilable are at work, and the slightest incident is sufficient to afford a pretext for their antagonism to become active. It is this, the existence of hostility, which creates an apparently immovable deadlock, which is the most discouraging feature of all. Local grievances can be removed or remedied, a thing which is done every day under prudent government. But what statecraft can deprive the racial fanatic of his excuses? Take one from him today, and he will discover by tomorrow another, or even two. A Royal Commission is offered —but will passion and prejudice pay any heed to its findings? A Legislative Council is mooted for the future control of the country, depending for its success on the close co-operation of representative Arabs and Jews —but how can it hope to succeed, or even to make a beginning, if on either one side or the other there is no determination save to thwart and obstruct? The problem is not one for theorists to solve; even realists cannot possibly find it easy.