Ask Why Palestine Administration Report Was Not Published

The Arab Executive has sent to the High Commissioner a reply to the letter signed by Sir Ronald Storrs, of the 21st instant, in which it was said that there were thirteen misstatements of fact in the memorandum submitted through Sir Herbert Samuel to the Permanent Mandates Commission of the League of Nations. The Arab Executive regrets that the High Commissioner does not intend to publish the report submitted to the Permanent Mandates Commission by him in his capacity as High Commissioner. This attitude of keeping away so important a document, it writes, will be taken by the people to mean that it contains statements or allegations inconsistent with the facts or with the welfare of the people. Also, it does not comply with one of the highest principles of present-day politics endorsed by the League of Nations, which prohibits secrecy in dealing with such political affairs.

“Your Excellency’s commenting on thirteen points raised in the memorandum submitted to the Mandates Commission through your Excellency by the Executive of the Palestine Arab Congress, and their treatment as misstatements as a time when your Excellency keeps away your own report does not coincide with the principles of fair play so prominent in the English character. The thirteen comments themselves, each and every one of them, have been minutely considered and found to be either mistaken, one-sided or contrary to the facts.”

The letter then deals with the thirteen points which were raised in the Palestine Government’s letter. In regard to point 4, in which the Government wrote that only 100 immigrants were admitted for the purpose of entering the labor market, and the small number of other immigrants who came in were either members of the families of persons already in the country or individuals possessing means of their own, the Arab Executive declares that it is a widely known fact that during the year 1923 a large number of immigrants smuggled themselves into Palestine over the Syrian frontiers. The number of attempts at suicide and of actual suicide among Jewish immigrants because of their poverty, it goes on, proves that a large number of these immigrants never possessed independent means. The Labor and Immigration Departments being both more or less in Jewish hands, immigration restrictions imposed by the High Commissioner have had only a slight effect, the letter concludes.