GREAT WAR LEGACY

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1004, 21 June 1930, Page 11

GREAT WAR LEGACY

PROBLEM OF PALESTINE CAN JEWS KEEP THEIR HOME? The problem of Palest in*' is one oC the debit legacies of the Great War. and like other debts incurred byBritain in the stress of the world conflict, it has to be paid to the best of our ability (says a British writer). It is not the British way to repudiate a bargain freely entered into, after the value received has been enjoyed, and when nothing remains but the difficult performance of solemn pledges. It is easy today for the man in the street to denounce the Balfour Declaration promising the Jews a national home in Palestine as a piece of sentimental folly. But Lord Balfour was not a sentimentalist. Whatever may be said of the other parties to the bargain (.the Zionists). Lord Balfour was just out for the sinews of war. and it was not his fault that he had to pay the price demanded by the masters of the world’s currency. As for the Zionists, it was surely to their credit that they used their power for the benefit, or supposed benefit, of the poor and oppressed sections of their own race and faith. Some day possibly the world will know something of the details of the. historic bargain and how far ir helped the cause of the Allies. But that is not what concerns us just now, but rather the best way of fulfilling our part of the compact and of overcoming the manifest difficulties confronting us as the Power that has voluntarily accepted the mandate of the League of Nations to govern the Holv Land on traditional British lines of peace, justice, and progress. For the present, at any rate, it is not a question of adding a wealth-yielding province to the Kmpirc. but merely of giving an unpromising experiment a chance of justifying itself. In view’ of the stern facts of thd case, it is satisfactory, 'I think, to know that the Commissioners who recently visited Palestine and investigated the relations betwen the Jewish newcomers and the old Arab settlers do not in their report—made publia recently—take a tragic or even despondent view of the future of the country. The Commissioners represented all the three British political parties and had a colonial judge as chairman, and there is no suggestion from any of them that, we should scuttle out and leave the Arabs and the Jews to fight it out among themselves or to be reconquered by the Turks. What they do is to recommend certain measures calculated to promote racial toleration and to ensure peaceful progress—if indeed that bo possible. An Arab Flare-up Trouble was to be expected from the “home-coming” of the Jews in large numbers, from the purchase of land for their use, from the arrogance of young Jewish Socialists, and from the clash of religious fanaticism, around the holy place of Jerusalem and elsewhere. The Commissioners make it clear, however, that the outbreak over the Wall of Wailing was more in the nature of a sudden Arab flare-up. which the Mahomedan authorities failed to discourage, than a pre-conceived and general uprising against the Jews. Such a conclusion is reassuring, and still more so is th« finding that the outbreak was not directed against the British Administration and that the British officiala on the spot acted with praiseworthy, firmness and discretion. The Commissioners urge the prime necessity for a clear statement by the British Government as to the meaning it attaches to the mandate. That is highly desirable if it bo possible, though care should be taken to avoid laying down any cast-iron policy which might thwart natural evolution and cause valuable lessons of experience to he ignored. Both Arabs and Jews are entitled to know in general terms how far we intend to go, and what kind of a civilisation our Government is aiming at, and is expecting to find in Palestine in. say, a hundred years from now. To succeed the policy must have the approval and conscious co-operation of the best elements in the two peoples. Other important and necessary recommendations are that some check must be placed on the incoming of Jews in excess of the economic ab-sorbing-power of the country; that discrimination in favour of admitting Jews because of their Socialist views should cease; and that the Jews must be given to understand that the Balfour Declaration does not entitle them to anything in the nature of political ascendancy. The real difficulty is to secure the close settlement of the Jews on the land without prejudicing the rights and position of the native population, but as it happens, Palestine is sparsely populated and much may be done by enlightened land laws and scientific cultivation, provided the Government be strong enough to prevent racial and religious ardour from interfering with economic development. Many More Letters In the six years to the middle of 1928, the Jewish population of Palestine increased by 67,000 to 150,000. and the same period the Moslem Arabs increased by 70,000 to 660,000, { and the Christians by 6,000 to 79,000. l Of a total population of 595.000, the ! Jews are but a sixth and it would, probably be a mistake to imagine, in view of the virility of the Arabs and the restricted area of cultivable land, that Palestine can ever afford a homo to more than a fraction of the seed of Abraham as it exists today. The promised land no longer flow's with milk and honey. Life there is hard and precarious. It cannot, we aro told by the Commissioners, support a larger agricultural population than it at present carries, unless methods of farming undergo a radical change. There is no alternative land to w'hich evicted persons can go, and a landless and discontented class is, of course, a potential danger. A Double Difficulty

The British Administration is thus clearly faced with a double problem, the one political and the other economic. Both may become unmanageable unless policy be guided by wisdom and an interpretation be put on the Balfour declaration that is consonant with the realities of the situation. What was promised was a, home for some of the Jews, not a place of starvation and bloodshed for millions of them, and fulfilment of the promise will itself compel restrictive measures to be adopted, so that population may not outrun subsistence. Good government and the introduce tion of scientific methods of agriculture may, however, do wonders, and in time manufacturing industries may warrant a much larger population. These are developments that are possible under British rule, as other part 3 of the world do testify. The one thing not possible in present circumstances is a breach of honour and % cowardly abandonment of th >se who have entrusted their lives and for* tunes to British guardianship.