AN ARAB STATE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 36, 13 February 1939, Page 7

AN ARAB STATE

FUTURE OF PALESTINE DEMAND AT LONDON CONFERENCE SOVEREIGN CONTROL (British Official Wircieaa) Received Feb. 12, 5.5 p.m. RUGBY, Feb. 10. The statement of the Arab case made at the Palestine Conference byPrince Husseini emphasised that it had nothing in common with antiSemitism and was not inspired by any hostility to the British people or to y other people, but the Arabs felt that it was one of self-evident justice resting on the natural right of a people to remain in undisturbed possession of their country and on their natural desire to safeguard their national existence and ensure that it should be secured end developed in freedom and harmony with their traditions and ideals. Prince Husseini also made the point that up to the time ->t the Balfour Declaration and the mandate the relations between the Arabs and the Jews had been peaceful and friendly. After arguing that the policy pursued by the mandatory in Palestine had proved the justice of the Arabs' fears, and contending that the immigration of Jews and the Jewish land purchases had been on a scale detrimental to ‘he material interests of the Arab population, he declared that, the Arabs had never, and : ever would, recognise the Balfour Declaration or the mandate, but in the eyes of the Aral)' the question was not primarily one of material interests but first and foremost one of moral political values.

No Peace Until The Arab case was based on the fact that the policy hitherto pursued in Palestine constituted grave injustice to the Arab people of a kind fol which there was no parallel and that until that injustice was adequately redressed there would be no peace ir the Holy' Land. Prince Husseini concluded by summarising the demands of the PaJestini Arabs under four heads. (1) Recognition of the right of the Arabs to complete independence ir their country. (2) Abandonment of the attempt t< establish a T ewish national home ir Palestine. (3) Abrogation of the mandate ar.r the illegalities resulting from it, anc its replacement by a treaty similai to that between Britain and Irak Io: creating a sovereign Arab State. (4) The immediate cessation of al Jewish immigration and sales of lane to Jews. The Arabs, he said, were prepaid to negotiate in a conciliatory spirl conditions under which reaso/abl British interests should be safeguard rd, and approve necessary guarantee for the preservation of and the righ of access to all holy' places and for th protection of all legitimate rights o Jewish and other minorities in Pales tine. British Policy Since War. Prince Husseini, continuing, sail that Britain's policy since the Wa had shown the Arab fears to be fa from groundless. The Arabs had bee: denied the independence promised b; Britain's pledge of 1915 in return fo the Arab share in the Allied victory The terms of the mandate had prove' a flagrant violation not only of pro mises, but of the right of politics independence specifically recognise by the Covenant of the League o Nations. Palestine's post-War administratioi had exercised an unfettered powe equivalent to a dictatorship, thereby depriving the Arabs, who before th War had enjoyed Parliamentary re presentation, of their elemental" rights of self-government, continue the Ar b speaker. The Jewish popu lation of Palestine had increased h 22 per cent, since the war, and no\ numbered 400.000 of a total 1,400,001 The Jews in 1918 had owned 150,00 acres; they now owned 330,000 acre of a total of 1,950,000 acres availablf driving the Arabs from the most fei the parts. Arab villages had bee razed and mosques, homes and cemc teries wiped out. The real issue, added Prince Hus a continuous occupation of Palestin seini was whether the Arabs, afte over 1300 years, should be forcib! evicted in order to enable the Jew to establish a national home. A British Ollicial Wireless messag says that Yakub Effendi Farraj ha accepted the invitation to be one o the two representatives of the De fence Party on the Palestine Ara delegation.

DEATH SENTENCES ARABS CARRYING FIREARMS. Received Feb. 12, 7 p.m. HAIFA, Feb. 11. Seven Arabs, ranging from 16 to 2 years, were sentenced to death fo carrying firearms and resisting th military. An eighth was sentenced t life imprisonment on account of hi age. INDIAN RESOLUTION CRITICAL OF LEAGUE Received Feb. 12, 5.5 p.m. NEW DELHI, Feb. 10. The Legislative Assembly passed bj 55 votes to 45 the Congress nesolutioi demanding India's immediate with drawal from the League of Nations oi the grounds of its failure to imple ment the sanction article, Britain’: wrong policy in Palestine in contra vention of the mandate's provisions and disregard of Indian feelings.