The ANNOTICO
Report
Britain's Foreign Secretary
Anthony Eden had to swallow his Yorkshire
pride, to transmit a "personal appeal" to Premier Mussolini to gain
his approval/lack of objection to the British Cabinet's Terms of the "Partition of Palestine " between the Jews and Arabs.
Two years ago Mr.
Eden had an encounter with Mussolini at which they exchanged high words
and parted on terms of mutual contempt.
Britain had great
concern that Il Duce would use his super-power radio station at Bari, which
daily broadcasts in Arabic to the Near East, or can broadcast in Hebrew, as
an engine of propaganda, to stir up either or both the Arabs and.Jews. Britain
had learned on a previous occasion the enormous degree of trouble the Bari station could cause Britain
in their MidEast
Colonies..
Oh yes. The
British cannot partition Palestine, which they hold as a mandate from the
League of Nations, without the consent of Geneva's
Permanent Mandates Commission, and its president is the Italian Marquis Alberto
Theodolianother reason why the British Cabinet were
being nice to Il Duce.
The Article
points out also:
The Jewish State
is to contain nearly all the best and most fruitful land in Palestine
and is to have the country's only
deep-sea harbor, Haifa.
Whereas, the Arabs were to have a somewhat larger area.
Double Cross: Britain, during the World War, secured Arab
support by making a series of promises to the Arabs which cannot by any human
possibility be fully kept if Britain
should also fully keep the promises she made to Jews during the World War to
gain their support.
Balfour Declaration:
Jews have always read this one way, Arabs have always read it the opposite way,
and among neutral statesmen opinion has long been unanimous that the late Lord
Balfour perpetrated one of history's
most monstrous ambiguities, a weasel which has drenched Palestine in strife for
20 years (now 80 years :( ).
Mandate Unscrambled
Time
Magazine
Monday,
July. 19, 1937
Britain's new Cabinet, anxious to announce the terms of
their decision to partition Palestine (TIME, July 12), met at No. 10 Downing
Street last week in worried session over what might be the attitude of Benito
Mussolini. Would Il Duce use his super-power radio station at Bari,
which daily broadcasts in Arabic to the natives of the Near
East, as an engine of propaganda to stir up the tribes and wreck
partition? Would Bari
even broadcast in Hebrew to stir up the Jews? During the Ethiopian crisis, Britain learned to her cost how much trouble the
Bari station can stir up among her natives, and
of late Bari
has unflatteringly called the English "whiskey-guzzling hyenas."
So great was the
Cabinet's anxiety that it decided
Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden must swallow his Yorkshire pride, ask Italian
Ambassador Count Dino Grandi to transmit a
"personal appeal" to Premier Mussolini to keep the Bari station quiet
about partition of Palestine. Since elegant Mr. Eden two years ago had an
encounter with the Dictator at which they exchanged high words and parted on
terms of mutual contempt (TIME, July 8, 1935), the Personal sacrifice asked of
the young British Foreign Secretary last week was great. Count Grandi few days later brought the British Cabinet an
especially courteous cable signed by Il Duce who agreed to keep Bari quiet on
Palestine for the present. Few observers in either London
or Rome thought Premier Mussolini had done this
open favor without receiving some secret concession from Prime Minister Neville
Chamberlain, presumably having to do with British policy on Spain.
The British
cannot partition Palestine, which they hold as a mandate from the League,
without the consent of Geneva's
Permanent Mandates Commission, and its president is the Italian Marquis Alberto
Theodolianother reason why the British Cabinet were
being nice to Il Duce.
Triple
Play. Palestine is to be partitioned as forecast (see map) into
a Jewish State, a British Mandate over the Holy Places, and an Arab State.
First thing to notice and recall is that the Palestine
Mandated Territory
("Palestine") and the Trans-Jordan Mandated
Territory ("Trans-Jordan")
are both held by Britain
under one and the same mandate from the League. Thus,
in a sense, the "frontier" between Palestine and Trans-Jordan has
been anomalous, and this anomaly the British Cabinet now propose to sweep away,
making a single political unit out of Trans-Jordan and the portion of Palestine
now assigned and partitioned to the Arabs. Thus this week the Emir of
Trans-Jordan, His Highness Abdullah ibn Hussein,
figured that what the British are going to do will, at any rate, enlarge his
realm and glory. His Highness came out instantly for partition of Palestine, declared in a
special edition of his personal news organ that he is "highly
pleased."
The Jewish State
is to contain nearly all the best and most fruitful land in Palestine
and is to have the country's only
deep-sea harbor, Haifa.
Nevertheless, its relatively small area was a heavy blow last week to Jews who
have come to look upon all Palestine
as "The Jewish National Home."
The proposed new
British Mandate over the Holy Places is designed simply to keep a heavily armed
umpire strategically placed between Jews and Arabs. As usual His Majesty's Government plan to "reserve" to
themselves for many years all sorts of rights and duties permitting British
forces to operate by land, sea and air with as much impunity in Palestine,
after it is partitioned, as the British still retain in Egypt, despite its
face-saving official status as "the Independent Kingdom of Egypt."
Dopesters Correct. On scanning the
Report of the Royal Commission, observers noted how accurate in every important
respect were the forecasts of the big Jewish news agencies fortnight ago as to
exactly what the British Cabinet had decided to do. They were even right on
such minutiae as that Britain
will halt sales of land to Jews which might adversely affect the chances for a
smooth partition, and that for this year Britain
will drastically check Jewish migration into Palestine. Britain and the Jewish State are to
'pay the Arab State $10,000,000,
plus subsequent additional subsidies, as a sop to Arab opinion.
Double Cross,
Because of certain U. S.
treaty rights in Palestine, Washington
as well as Geneva
must be persuaded by the British Cabinet to agree to
much of the proposed scheme. Moreover, it must pass both Houses of Parliament,
which will only commence to debate it this week. Everything pointed to at least
two years of negotiation and adjustment before Palestine can possibly be partitioned. Best
and most characteristically British thing about the report was the way it made
a clean breast of the fact that Britain, during the World War, secured Arab
support by making a series of promises to the Arabs which cannot by any human
possibility be fully kept if Britain should also fully keep the promises she
made to Jews during the World War to gain their support.
Thus the Royal
Commission and British Cabinet employed again the masterly technique by which
Stanley Baldwin when Prime Minister used to confess that Britain had
blundered and muddled, always winning fresh applause for the frankness and
manliness of his confessions. To put as good a face as possible on Britain's double-crossing promises to Jews and Arabs during
the War, Paragraph 24 of the Report ingeniously reminds Arabs that if the
Allies had lost the War the Palestine Arabs would still be under Turkish
thralldom, and that Jewish aid was one of the vital factors which made it
possible for the Allies to win the War.
Rape Proposed,
Peace Predicted, The question this week was really whether the Jews and Arabs
are being deftly double-crossed again. Opinions:
6 "In the
name of God and religion," the Palestine Arab Committee of the Grand Mufti
Haj Amin el Husseini of Jerusalem telegraphed to doughty King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia and the vigorous Imam of the
Yemen, "the Arab nation of Palestine begs Your Majesties to direct support
of the nation in this historical and critical situation and appeals to you ...
to do your utmost to save Palestine from the evils of Imperialism and Judaization and from being torn asunder. . . ."
6 "This is a
major disaster for world Jewry," cried anti-Nazi Boycott Chief Samuel
Untermeyer in Manhattan.
"Protest against the proposed rape of Palestine!"
6 "I deny
the necessity for the Commission's
recommendation that Holy Places need the protection of a Christian mandatory as
a 'sacred trust to civilization,' " declared at Jerusalem the Secretary of the Arab
Committee, Fuad Saba, who is himself a Christian. "All Holy Places of Palestine have been fully
protected for thirteen centuries! A typical example is that for centuries the
keys of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre were in
custody of Moslems because of friction and differences between the Christian
communities."
6 "Great Britain is
guilty of the gravest betrayal of a most sacred trust!" cried Rabbi
Stephen Samuel Wise, President of the Zionist Organization of America. "We
Jews found Palestine
an almost abandoned waste. Under the mandate of Britain we transformed that waste
into a high civilization! [The Report] attempts to set up another spurious Arab
kingdom, strikes at the very heart of Jewish hopes and is an affront to the League of Nations."
6
"The existing system in Palestine
could only end in disaster!" broadcast from London Earl Peel, Chairman of
the Royal Commission. "I predict peace between Jews and Arabs when each have their own states in Palestine!"
6,000 Years.
Nearly 4,000 B.C. is the legendary time when the Tribe of Jacob set themselves up in Palestine,
and it was not until 633 A.D. that Palestine
was ever conquered by the Arabs. During its 6,000 years of history, however, Palestine has been
conquered and reconquered innumerable times, notably
by the Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Egyptians, Romans, Byzantines, European
Crusaders, the Turks and even briefly by Mongolian
invaders. As long ago as 1700 B.C. conquered Israelites had to quit Palestine
for Egypt, as they have indulged in innumerable migrations since, but love of
Palestine has remained in the fibre of their race,
and innumerable times members of the Tribes of Israel have tried and succeeded
variously in getting back.
Toward the close
of Queen Victoria's
reign arose the present agitation to create a Jewish state in Palestine,
but for decades the grip of Turkey
and therefore of Islam on the land blocked Jewish efforts. The crackup of
Germany and her Turkish ally, with General Allenby capturing Jerusalem as a
sort of 20th Century Crusader in December 1917, was the decisive moment,
because five weeks earlier British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour had made
his historic Declaration: "His Majesty's
Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home
for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the
achievement of that object, it being understood that nothing shall be done
which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish
communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by the
Jews in any other country."
Jews have always
read this Balfour Declaration one way, Arabs have always read it the opposite
way, and among neutral statesmen opinion has long been unanimous that the late
Lord Balfour perpetrated one of history's
most monstrous ambiguities, a weasel which has drenched Palestine in strife for
20 years. This week neutral opinion had not yet crystallized, but widely His
Majesty's Government was beginning
to receive credit for honest efforts to simply cut with one harsh stroke the
Palestine Knot.
Approving Nazi
editors told Germans this week that the wise British had made a ''judgment
of Solomon," apparently forgetting that Biblical King Solomon at the last
moment did not permit the disputed babe to be partitioned.