Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1938. PACIFICATION IN PALESTINE.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 October 1938, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1938. PACIFICATION IN PALESTINE.

ACCORDING to one of yesterday’s cablegrams from London, Cabinet has approved the measures proposed by the Colonial Secretary, Mr Malcolm MacDonald, for the restoration of order in Palestine and the broad outlines of a possible final settlement. An earlier message stated that these proposals involved the abandonment of, tio partition plan and the establishment of a unified State under British guidance.

It is perhaps rather soon to ascribe to these partly disclosed proposals the “relief and renewed confidence declared in a cablegram from Jerusalem yesterday to be “expressed everywhere.” Probably, however, a good deal of significance may legitimately •be attached to accompanying statements that Arabs welcome reports that partition has been abandoned, though they still urge that British policy in other respects must also be changed, while Jews express relief at the prospect of the British remaining in control.

How far these expressions of national sentiment are representative, time and events must show, but the history of the administration of the Palestine mandate over an extended period, and not least during the last few months, must have gone far to convince unprejudiced observers that the problems of settlement in the Holy Land are not likely to be solved bv Arabs and Jews, under a scheme ot partition or any alternative that can meantime be envisaged, in the absence of a disinterested and effective overriding control. Britain admittedly has' made some blunders in her handling of/the mandate, blit her greatest mistake perhaps has been an undue haste to hand over Palestine to the Arabs and Jews if only they could be induced to enter into some reasonable understanding and agreement. Late events have emphasised tragically the difficulty of establishing peace between the two races. They have emphasised also the necessity of maintaining the enforcement of law in Palestine which has contributed in a most important degiee to the wonderful transformation, effected in that country since the end of the Great War.

As colonising settlers, the Jews have achieved marvels. They have converted barren fields into productive .and beautiful farms and orchards. They have built villages and towns and have developed on a remarkable scale various branches of industry and trade. Their declared faith is that “nothing can stand in the way of people who are honest, who pay as they go, and who bring only prosperity to the country.”

The Arabs also, still much the more numerous rate in Palestine, have in their own way made notable headway and progress since the removal of the blight of Turkish rule. Much as they are outclassed by the Jews in habits of settled industry and productive enterprise, the Arabs at their best are a vigorous and spirited people, in whom the pride of race runs high. Today they are denouncing as traitors those of their number who sold their lands to Jewish settlers and declaring that: “Palestine is a holy land for the Arabs; Mohammed blessed this land for the Arhbs to hold forever; and we shall not let it slip out of our hands.”

At the stage that has meantime been reached, the problem of composing the conflicting claims of Arabs and Jews appears to defy solution. It is plainly better, however, that the conditions of order and progress Britain has developed during nearly twenty years of mandatory rule should be maintained than that the Holy Land should be abandoned to anarchy and a war of racial extermination. The precise lines on which the development of the country is to proceed, with reference to the admission of additional. Jewish immigrants and in other ways, must be determined at some later period.

To the fact, however, that both races are, to appearance, irreconcilably opposed, it has to be added that both have benefited greatly from the efforts Britain has made in the administration of her mandate. Today, as an American long resident in Palestine observed recently, that country has good schools, an. impartial administration of justice', a police force, greatly improved sanitation, an elaborate system of water works for Jerusalem, and a well-night perfect system of national* roads. It appears at least to be established beyond all doubt that a firm continuing exercise of authority and guidance by Britain is essential if these benefits are to maintained and extended.