The Council of the League of Nations on Monday approved
of the Mandates to Great Britain and France for Palestine and Syria respectively. Lord Balfour and AL Viviani explained, however, that the Mandates were to operate simultaneously. and that as France and Italy were not yet agreed about the economic provisions of the Syrian Mandate, and as Italy was for the moment without a Government, there must be further delay before the Mandates were actually applied. There would appear, also, to be some controversy about a Commission which we are to appoint for defining the rights of various religious bodies in the Holy Places. It is strange, indeed, to find the Italian.and French Governments competing for the privilege of assisting the Vatican in this ancient and tiresome quarrel. Lord Balfour made an earnest appeal to the Arabs and Jews to live peaceably together and declared that, as a settlement had been reached, it would be a great crime for Englishmen to encourage the racial and religious animosities that were " only too -willing to spring up." The success of his appeal must, of course, depend on the policy pursued by the Government in Palestine.
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