17 SEPTEMBER 1937, Page 2

Palestine at Geneva In outline, at any rate, the policy

to be adopted for the immediate future in Palestine seems to have been settled at Tuesday's meeting of the League of Nations Council, before which Mr. Eden laid the British case. The Council will accept partition in principle, and will leave it to the British Government to attempt' to negotiate boundaries and other details with the Arabs and Jews. Some lesser points may yet be debated, and in particular the not unreason- able objection of the Permanent Mandates Commission to the arbitrary British restriction of Jewish immigration during the interval. The interval may be long, for the remaining task is not easy. It is clear now that the Royal Commission rendered a great service by grasping the nettle of partition. But it is becoming equally clear that they did a great disservice by proposing partition within such ill-conceived and contro- versial boundaries. The map that they drew will remain a very serious handicap ; for while it cannot possibly stand, it will tend to prejudice and complicate every future discussion. * * *