See Macdonald Statement on Palestine Preliminary to Full Declaration of Policy

Prime Minister MacDonald’s statement yesterday in the House of Commons on Palestine cannot be regarded as more than the briefest preliminary to a full declaration of policy which the Inquiry Commission declared essential to the good government of the country, says the “Daily Telegraph” in an editorial today.

The “Telegraph” points out that the Premier’s declaration that there is no question of receding from an international duty assumed by Great Britain was a matter of course. “If the Jewish-Arab relations had not dominated the picture what the Palestinian government had accomplished in the ten years since the Mandate in the reorganization of the legal system, educational development, communications and in other respects work of excellence would be better recognized,” the “Telegraph” declares.

Even in the direction of Arab-Jewish relations the government has until recently “discharged well the primary duty of keeping peace, Palestine being wholly tranquil at a time when the Arabs across the Syrian frontier revolted,” says the “Telegraph. “MacDonald’s renewal of the pledge of protection for the civil and religious rights of non-Jews does not touch the heart of their grievance, which according to the Inquiry Commission’s report is mainly economic. Pending a fuller statement it is necessary that any appearance of partisanship in the unhappy feud be avoided in public discussion in this country.”