THE PALESTINE MANDATE
Snt,—When the Palestine Mandate was drawn up the possibility of creating conditions in Palestine, which on the one hand would assist in the development of a Jewish National Home, and on the other would maintain the religious and economic rights of the Arabs, was not an impossible hope. That there were reasonable grounds for these expecta tions can be gathered from the Agreement signed in 1919 by the Emir Feisal and Dr. Weizmann, pledging co-operation between the Arab State and Palestine, the acceptance of the Balfour Declaration, and the encourage ment of immigration of Jews into Palestine on a large scale. When the possibility of an independent pan-Arab State disappeared, the basis of co-operation in Palestine disappeared 'also.
It is, therefore, not surprising that protagonists who desire to give either the pro-Arab or pro-Jewish interpretation to the Mandate can find abundant ammunition for their polemics. The bulk of this verbal warfare takes place very much "in the air." There are now over half a million Jews in Palestine. Their remarkable achievements have revitalised the spirit of Jewish nationality throughout the world. A movement of this kind cannot suddenly be halted. Moreover, the National Home in Palestine is now so well established that it is possible to say that the problem of Jewish homelessness can be solved in Palestine.
If it was true in tow that, provided the Arabs could secure their independent State they would not begrudge Palestine to the Jews, is it not possible for these conditions to be fulfilled in 1945? Unity within the vast Arab territories, secured with the help of the United Nations, is a prize which may well justify compeniation in the shape of a small strip of territory no larger than Wales. One does not have to be andArab to appreciate that Palestine aldne can proyide a solution to the Jewish problem.—Yours faithfully, S. S. HAMMERSLEY. ta Chesham Street, S.W..t.
Sta,—In reply to Sir John Hope-Simpson, I should like to point out that the .Palestine Mandate takes note of Article 22 of the Covenant of
the League, quotes the terms of the Balfour Declaration, and declares that "recognition has thereby been given to the historical connexion of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country." The only "national home" 'that the Jews had in Palestine was a State, and the operative word is " reconstituting."
With regard to .Mr. Winston Churchill's White Paper of 1922, it should be recalled that, according to the Report of the Palestine Royal Commission (1937), there was "nothing in it to prohibit the ultimate establishment of a Jewish State, and Mr. Churchill himself has tokl us in evidence that no such prohibition was intended."—Yours faithfully,
Child's Hill, N.W. 2. _ ISRAEL COHEN.
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