THE ARAB WORLD LETTERS TO
THE EDITOR
Sta,—I should like to make one comment on Mr. Nevill Barbour's informative article on the Arab world. Dealing with the future of Palestine, he appears to think that a settlement of the Jewish problem is likely to be found along the line of the 1939 White Paper policy. What is needed is a completely new outlook. A policy—justly described by the Prime Minister as a breach of faith—cannot possibly find general acceptance.
A solution based on the Balfour Declaration would conform more closely to the urgent needs of the Jewish people and our obligations to them. Mr. Barbour agrees that a Jewish National Home in Palestine could be fitted into the Middle Eastern framework. There is no good reason why, with the backing of Great Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union, a Jewish State (occupying one hundredth the area of the Arab States) should not likewise find its place in that region, as foreseen by both Lawrence and Feisal in 1919. The Arabs, with seven independent States, cannot claim that their needs and aspirations have been, or are being, overlooked, or ignored. The policy of the National Home, and the entrusting of the mandate to Britain were decided on as matters of first-class importance and on considerations of high international policy and far-reaching strategy. The contribution of the Jews in Palestine to the war effort—officially described as being of a "critical character" to the Middle East military command— has vindicated the policy. While—six weeks before the fall of Baghdad in 1941—every Arab in the Middle East thought we were done for ; and when every Arab force (with the exception of the Transjordan Legion) organised by us either mutinied or faded away in desertions, the Jews of Palestine were enlisting. In the Middle East Britain will require proved friends. A Jewish State in Palestine, which can be of mutual benefit to Jews and Arabs in the Middle East generally, is an undeniable British interest. We shall be well advised to think twice before accepting a solution" of the question that leaves Palestine to the tender mercies of the ex-Mufti and his former circle of friends.—Sincerely yours, 19 Chesham Street, S.W. z.
S. S. HAMMERSLEY.
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