Absorptive Capacity Principle Hit As Inconsistent with Mandate

Leonard Stein, legal adviser to the Jewish Agency for Palestine, emphasized that the principle of absorptive capacity was inconsistent with the League of Nations mandate in a long address last night before the Royal Commission of Inquiry.

Indicating that not even the principle of absorptive capacity was being carried out, he called for facilitation of Jewish immigration. He stressed that the mandate does not specify whether the Jewish national home does or does not mean a Jewish majority.

(The New York Times, in a Jerusalem dispatch, quoted Earl Peel, chairman of the commission, as saying after the conclusion of Mr. Stein’s address: “Thank you for your very able exposition, which now makes the document (the mandate) more obscure to me than ever before.)

Wider use of Hebrew by the Government was demanded by David Yollin, well known Hebrew writer. He urged that use of the term Eretz Israel (land of Israel) be restored in place of the initials “A.I.” (The initials have been used in radio broadcasts since Arabs protested use of Eretz Israel as opposed to their national aspirations.)

Showing interest in the subject, Lord Peel, asked whether use of the full name would not hurt Arab feelings and whether it did not constitute a departure from the mandate, where mention is made only of a Jewish national home.

Mr. Yellin denied the term had political implications, declaring he had no desire that the world call Palestine Eretz Israel but that the name be used only in Hebrew references to the country.