THE PALESTINE MANDATE
SIR,—As Mrs. Maude Royden Shaw is of opinion that " the interpreta- tion by the Zionist of the words 'national home' into ' Jewish Common- wealth' has no ground whatever, in logic or in fact," I shall be obligee; if you will permit me to quote the more authoritative views of those mainly responsible for the issue of the Balfour Declaration. The Palestine Royal Commission stated in their Report (x937) that Mr. Lloyd George, who was Prime Minister in 1917, informed them in evidence that "it was contemplated that when the time arrived for according representative institutions to Palestine, if the Jews had meanwhile responded to the opportunity afforded them by the idea of a national home and had become a definite majority of the inhabitants, then Palestine would thus become a Jewish Commonwealth:" The Royal Commission also pointed out
that " Lord Robert Cecil in 1917, Sir ,Herbert Samuel in 1919, and Mr. Winston Churchill in 192o, spoke or wrote in terms that could only mean that they contemplated the eventual establishment of a Jewish State."
Two other authorities may be quoted. President Woodrow Wilson, on March 3rd 1919, said that " the Allied nations, with the fullest concurrence of our Government and people, are agreed that in Palestine shall be laid the foundrioas of a Jewish Commonwealth," and Field- Marshal Smuts, who was a member of the Imperial War Cabinet when the Balfour Declaration was issued, foretold, in a speech at Johannesburg on November 3rd, 1919; an increasing stream of Jewish immigration into Palestine and " in generations to come a great Jewish State rising there
Previous page
