Firm Hand Needed

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 937, 2 April 1930, Page 9

Firm Hand Needed

BRITISH RULE IN PALESTINE Report Well Received SETTLING ARAB AND JEW TROUBLE THE report of the Commission on the Palestine disturbances is received sympathetically in London, where Press comment emphasises the need for a first administrative hand. Key problems, it is hinted, should be given more intimate study with the idea of reconciling Arab and Jew.

British Official Wireless Reed. 12.20 p.m. RUGBY, Tuesday. Commenting on the report of the Palestine Commission, “The Times” says:—“To sum up its contents in a phrase, the report makes a strong case for a definition of the practical limits of Zionist colonisation in Palestine, if it is not to result in the poor Arab problem, but it suggests that the first and most obvious duty of the mandatory Power is to leave no doubt whatever in the mind of either race that this country intends to retain the mandate with which the League of iNations has entrusted it, and to maintain law and order throughout the country. “So long as that is clearly understood there is everything to be said for a clear restatement of the terms of the mandate, and of the policy bv which it is to be carried out in practice.” The “Daily Telegraph” says the report goes to the root of the matter in insisting that what is needed, and without delay, as between Jew and Arab, is a statement of policy which shall leave neither community in any

doubt as to its position and its guaranteed rights under the mandate or the Balfour Declaration, or as to the Government’s intention to support that policy with all necessary vigour. The “Manchester Guardian” says: “The task to which we are l committed in Palestine is at the best one of the utmost delicacy. It is a problem which we are bound to solve without injustice to the present population. It is in the solution of the economic problem that the hope for Palestine largely lies. Jewish culture and Jewish capital have already done much to improve the condition of the country, as for instance in the fight against malaria. By gradually raising the standard of life, the Jews may hope to reconcile the Arabs to experiments. “Quite clearly the key problems of immigration and land purchase require expert study and control, and more detailed examination than they have yet received. AbotAs all, the suspicion that the Administration can be bullied into concessions or deflected by political cajolery must be banished once and for all. In stressing this the commission has done well.”