[To the Editor of Tax SPECTATOR.] Sm,—Mr. Blumberg's wise contribution
in your issue of July 17th might well be heeded by a weak-kneed Administra- tion, a bewildered Democracy seeking leadership, and a Press that has for too long disregarded the Arab case. Most Englishmen with experience of the country would agree with what he says, and endorse, his proposals.
When I say Englishmen, I do not mean English Jew's
nor Englishmen with a definitely " Old Testament bias." Where some of us might join issue with him is in his last two paragraphs. These are but true in part or at best doubtful. He says :
" It cannot be overlooked that the Jews created in Palestine a culture which revolutionised the history of the world, and the Arab merely converted a flourishing country into a desert."
However right this may be of the Jews, it does not account for the culture which produced that supreme monu- ment " the Dome of the Rock," nor for the mediaeval city of Jerusalem. That city still stands, an abiding witness, and it is predominantly Moslem and Christian—not Jewish. Also he ignores Turkish administration, against which the Arabs revolted when they fought beside us in the War and we promised them independence. But are we not playing with words ? What does he mean—what do any of us mean—by " the Arabs " ? The people of Palestine are a mixed race, of whom some have Arab blood, but the bulk
are probably descendants of those the Old Testament calls by many names—Philistines, Amalekites, Hitites, Hivites, Perrizites, Jebuzites, &c., or the New Testament Samaritans, or Greeks of the Decapolis. Of that temporary culture which preceded the Christian and the Moslem, Mr. Blumberg goes on to say : " This is the basis of the Balfour Declaration which would other- wise have been immoral and have no validity."
A distinguished English Jew, the late Lord Melchett, once when in Palestine, referring to the Balfour Declaration, put it to me thus : " The British Government has committed itself to two diametrically opposite policies—the National Home, and Self-Determination ; given the one, what will become of the other ? . . . God knows ! " Palestine, says Mr. Blumberg in conclusion, " is the only land whose former possessors are still alive." If he means the non-Jew as well as the Jew possessors we should probably ;all agree.
The majority of the people of Palestine have never accepted the British Mandate as just in itself ; further, they claim that the Balfour Declaration has a second part to it which, under the Mandate, has not been fairly administered. It would be wiser to say that " the crux of the matter " is a just regard for our commitments, or a frank admission that they are incompatible. Many of us agree with Lord
Melchett.—Yours, &c., C. R. ASHBEE. Godden Green, nr. Sevenoaks, Kent.
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