[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] Sm,—You published recently a
letter from me on Arab and Jew in Palestine. That letter, which was refused by papers that did •not wish the Arab case heard, has brought me an immense number of letters—perhaps the most, significant from Palestine itself. It seems desirable that English feeling there should be better known in England, if for no other reason than that those of us who understand it and have some knowledge of the country shall " stand by " and help those English officials who are trying under desperately difficult conditions to administer a policy in which they disbelieve, but of which loyalty and duty forbid them to speak.
It is not only disbelief in political Zionism which these letters reveal, nor yet doubt in the wisdom of what has been aptly termed " driving a Jewish wedge between Christianity and Islam " ; it is the Englishman's deep-seated hatred of injustice. The following extract from one of these .letters reveals what some of these men feel. For obvious reasons the names cannot' be given.
" Thanks a thousand times for your letter. . . Can't you people in England get together and do something about it? You will find X. helpful, . . . and (there follow various names). What is going on here now is too dreadful for words. 'They are machine-gunning from aeroplanes those Arab patriots, called brigands by the Zionists, who are pro- testing on the hills. The House of Commons appears to us here to be Zionist-ridden. The Arab case is nowhere being fairly and fully stated, and they have a good one. A. has resigned in disgust. B. has threatened to do so. Both visited the villages which have been treat*d to punitive expeditions ! Z. has been ordered out of the country, but some of us are hoping to see his report in some paper. Your' letter has been seen by everyone and is very much appreciated by the Arabs, as well as by those who believe that they have a very serious case. There never was such unanimity as there is over this strike. The people are really desperate, and they feel that if they now give in with nothing granted, the future of their children is as black as it can be. I cannot. see that they are not correct." .
Some of this may sound hysterical, but it contains hard facts. It cannot be ignored, nor can it be silenced with guns.— Y ours obediently, C. R. ASHBEE. Godden Green, nr. Sevenoaks, Kent.
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