ARAB RIGHTS IN PALESTINE
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.]
Sin,—The case of the Arabs of Palestine seems to be unanswerable unless the official report of Sir John Hope Simpson, published in 1980 (Cmd. 3686), can be shown to be incorrect. It cannot be disposed of by the introduction of irrelevant considerations, such as the purpose for which the Jewish National Fund was instituted and the other arguments in Mr. Israel Cohen's letter in your last issue. Under Article 6 of the Mandate of the League of Nations, it is the duty of the Administration in Palestine to ensure that the rights and position of the Arabs are not prejudiced by Jewish immigration, but the Article is contravened, as stated in the report, so that the protection It which it provides is not given. After five years the position in this respect remains the same as when the report was written. Clearly the Arabs have full justification for complaint when the provision designed to safeguard their interests is departed from to their disadvantage. The great importance that attaches to a strict observance of its conditions will be understood when the volume of Jewish immigration into Palestine is realised. The total for the year 1933 would correspond on the basis of relative populations to an influx into Great Britain of about two millions in that one year.—
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