Palestine Delays It would be going too far to describe
the Government's new announcement on Palestine as a step towards throwing the Peel Commission's report into the melting-pot, for it is stated quite explicitly that the decision to adopt the principle of partition holds. But nothing else does. After a delay that has been far too long already further postpone- ment is contemplated while a new Commission reconsiders all the details of partition, regarding which the Government insists that it is committed to the adoption of none of the Peel Commission's proposals. It is quite true that the application of the Peel Commission's recommendations, even if none of them were called in question, would involve considerable study of detail, but Mr. Ormsby-Gore seems to go out of his way to lay stress on the length of the interval to be contemplated before any final settlement of the Palestine koblem is achieved. That is a disturbing, not to say an 'alarming, prospect. It is true that time will be left for conciliation to do its work ; the possibility of a voluntary agreement between the two parties cannot be completely excluded. But since that is wholly improbable it is only left to hope that the Commission when it is ap- pointed will resolve to get through its work with greater despatch than the Secretary of State's letter to Sir Arthur Wauchope appears to contemplate. The prolonged uncer- tainty is laying a grave strain on the overtaxed Administration.
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