PALESTINE PROBLEM

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 March 1939, Page 3

PALESTINE PROBLEM

CARDINAL SUPPORTS ARABS. Sympathy with the Arabs and the conviction that the British Government will see justice done were expressed by Cardinal Hinsley. Archbishop of Westminster, addressing a meeting of the Royal Empire Society in London. Cardinal Hinsley said they had met to advocate the cause of peace and to work for goodwill among men. "I say,” he continued, “that whether white man or black man. Russian. Mexican. Spaniard, Jew or Arab, if there is suffering among them they are my neighbours. lam for the Arabs of Palestine. I cannot help but express my deep sympathy with them and my hope to give help if I possibly can. There are between forty and fifty thousand Arabs under the Holy See and they have suffered grievously. The British Government has done an immense amount of good, since it was entrusted with the care of the Holy Land. I would observe, however, that if you touch the language or the land of any people you strike at the most sensitive and vital part of their organisation, and the land of the Arabs belongs to them. The Arabs contended that they were being robbed, for others were being given the opportunity of buying them out. I think this is an important part of the question now before Britain, but I am quite confident that the Government intends to do justice to all parties.” The primary principle for colonising Powers or mandatory Powers was the well being of the people, Cardinal Hinsley concluded. Commercial interests were secondary and unimportant compared with the good of the people who had been given into Britain’s charge.