The Palestine Commission
By a suggestive coincidence Mr. Kevin announced the composition of the Anglo-American Commission on Palestine on the same day- Tuesday—on which Lord Samuel made a valuable, comprehensive and admirably objective survey of the whole Palestine situation in a debate on the subject initiated by Lord Altrincham in the House of Lords. The alternative chairmen of the new commission, which is expected to complete its work in four months, are both judges, Mr. Justice Singleton for Great Britain and Judge Hutcheson of Texas, for the United States—a wise introduction of a completely non-political element. It may no doubt be argued that in the light of the appointment of the Commission such a speech as Lord Samuel's is a little belated, but it should be of considerable value to the Commission itself to have before it the views of so experienced and impartial an authority. Lord Samuel declares decisively that the British form of democracy, the counting of individual heads, will not work in a country like Palestine, where the minority would never trust to the justice and good will of the majority. Therefore, having dismissed the idea of partition as impracticable, he proposes what is in effect not much different from Crown Colony government, with the three communities, Arab, Jewish and Christian, all represented on a central consultative council, under a Governor who should by preference be British (Lord Samuel is contemplating a status of trusteeship under U.N.O.), and each of them developing representa- tive institutions of its own and dealing with its own educational, religious and other affairs. There is much that is attractive in this. The scheme would certainly work if the communities concerned were . prepared to make it work. But the condition is the stumbling-block.
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