THE PROBLEM OF PALESTINE.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 148, 10 July 1937, Page 4

THE PROBLEM OF PALESTINE.

Far-'seeing1, wide-minded aiid weil-inforraed sta.tesiaan as he may have been, it may -vvell be dotibted whefhef, when some 15 or 16 years ago be issued his famotiS Declaration • graetically guaranteeing to the Jewish people all over the wbrld a national home in Palestine for thdse who inight Pare to seek it, Lord Balfour had any conception of the possihle cdmplexities of the new prdbl^in he Was setting for Great Britain to solve. As matters have tufhfed otit, it woiild seem as if he had overlooked, or at a*riy rate not fully realised, the difficulties that were bound to ar'ise in the way df recdiicilihg the rights of the Jewish migrants with those 6f the Arabs whd then formed by far the lhrger pairt of the residerit popuiatidn, It was not, however* very lorig befdi-e these difficultieS hegan to make themselves manifest, and froffl. ■ tiirie to time the oonflict of interests has taken such violent and ugly form that military action has had to be brdught ifito play. Ifl fact, it inay almost bevsaid that Great Britin's administration df fhe inandate entrusted to hfer by the LeaguSl of Natidns has partakeri largely and almost continuonsly • of a military eharacter in an attempt to m&intain peace between these two rades, whdlly antipdthfetie to one another in blood, in religion, in industriousness and in almdst every other way of life. Efforts td bring thdin logether as a sitigle State by conferring upon them some meastire of self-government have met with signal failure, for it has been found quite impraeticablfe to devise ahy schefne of dithef political or economie co-opera-tion thdt would s'atisfy hoth. Iri the mearttime, hoWever, under the protection provided by Brifish arms, the J ews have flddked iif fheif sedrds 6*f thohsands ffdih all qiiar ters df the earth to their old and ndw hewly prdinised lafi'd, the niiihber df ihigrants being of cdtirse Very greatly inereased by the persecUtioiis to whieh members of their rdce Wfere being Subjected in more than dnd Ltirop§ah dduiitry. Libfef-ally finaneed by their well-to-do fellow Jews thrbtigH&iit the World, tHe Jewish ffiigfantit hdve steadily developed the productive capacify df a cdtihtry Which had lain practically derelict for hiindfeds of ydars. This, howeverj has had the effect oniy of drousing arid intehsifying the eupidity of the Arabs, a traditidrially rdfihg ahd pfedatdry pfeople. Under conditions §uch as these it can be reaaily liiiddfstdod hoW ifripracticablb it has heen found to fuse two such violently opposed elembnts into drife State— for sblfgovernment was the ultimate purpdse df the maridate. The commission that was set upy ilhder Lord Peel as chairman and Sir Horace Rumbold as viee-fchairmari, td stiidy the prohlem and suggest sonie pldn fdr its solution has been eiigaged on the task for sonifething like twelve months, with the result that if cari riiake 110 recommedation other than to paftitidri the country betwdfen the two dpposing facfions. Such a decision has, howevdr, only raised a new problem. That is as to how so small ari area, drily abdut drie-tenth that •of our 6wH littlS Ddminion, of sdeh varying cliaraeter is to be faifly ditiddd, with sL due regard at thfe same time for JeWi&h religioiis sentimCiit toWa.rds particulai* arid Widely sCparated IdcalitieS. So far as diir cabled repdrts go it would seem that the boundaries prdposed hy the Cdmmissiori fihd favour in neither . AfSb ttdr Jewi6E efM. With respect td the Jews,' it may be that they will have to recognise t-Hrit the jare^dWritiori of Such hold as they have secured bri the boiintry will deperid entirely upon the suppert they may still hope to get from • Great Britain; This being the case, they may see that their best prospect df maintairiirig their position will lie, for the present at any rate, in accepting the commission's proposals. The Arabs, however, are not likely to he so easily placated; As a race they are rankling under Great Britain's failure to fulfil the promises wliich they claifii w§re made to them when, urider Lawrence's mysterious infludnce rind guidaiice, they co-operated with Allenby's forces 4,hd materially assiSted ih fi'feeirig Palestifife ftoiri LufkiSh rule. Of late this fedlirig has heeri greatly aggravated ty Italiah propriganda, it being obviously to Signor Mussolini's advantage to stir up any trouble that will make Great Britain's position in and r about the Red Sea more difficult. For what it riiay be worth, hdwever, he has ndw glvdri His prdiriise that this Will cease. But, fef §n givirig it iii that tkis prdririSd Will l»e friifilled# it may be taken that therfe will still be a godd deal of diffidulty in briftgittg the Arabs td acedpt the partitidn pl&it, and perhaps still lildrd ifl heldirig tiidiri td the dfesdrvaiice of its bohditions.