We must remember also that evacuation, if properly carried out,
need not necessarily mean any of the things which interested people threaten us with. Take, for example, Palestine. There is no reason why, if we retire from the Mandate, as we must; it should not be taken over by the present King—we believe Ruler is his official title —of Transjordania. There is no reason to suppose that he would desire or tolerate any massacre or ill-treatment of the Jews. On the contrary, he would probably be perfectly willing to come to an understanding with them and would be able to maintain it much better than we can. No doubt Dr. Weismann and his friends would not find it possible to squeeze money out of him in the way it has been squeezed out of the British taxpayer. Indeed, the. Ruler would probably want money himself, but we are sure it -would be possible to deal with him. It is the same in Mesopotamia. We feel sure that the opponents of our evacuation take things too much au tragique. In any case, Mesopotamia and Palestine commit us to imposing intolerable burdens upon the British tax- payer, and if we do not cut them off at once we shall be doing a great wrong to our own people. The clean cut is essential if we are not to kill the trade and commerce of this country. As every private individual knows, if you are spending too much, you must choose certain items and cut them out altogether. There may be hun- dreds of good reasons for letting them remain in your budget if you have got the money ; but if you have not, as we have not, they must go.
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