The British Cabinet this morning considered the final draft of a White Paper on Palestine as presented by Colonial Secretary Malcolm MacDonald, it was reliably learned.
Mr. MacDonald’s proposals for solution of the Palestine question, believed to provide for establishment of an independent Palestine state after a period of transition from the League-mandated government, were understood to have been approved.
Informed quarters expect publication of the White Paper in the very near future, possibly early next week. The British proposals, these sources said, may be modified as a result of the counter-proposals made by Arab leaders in Cairo, but the principles of the Government’s plan will not be altered.
The Arab proposals were submitted to Sir Miles Lampson, British Ambassador to Egypt, by Premier Mohammed Mahmoud Pasha after conferences with Arab leaders of Palestine and other countries. Their main points, according to the Cairo correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph, were:
1– Naming of Palestine Arabs with British advisers to head all departments in a new government as soon as peace is restored;
2– Control of land sales throughout the country, instead of permitting sales in certain areas, as proposed by Britain;
3– Admission of a maximum of 75,000 Jews in the next five years, provided that the Jews do not exceed one-third of the population at the end of that period;
4– Convocation of a constituent assembly three years hence to draft a new constitution.
Most of the delegates to the Cairo discussions have already left. The Palestine Arabs went to Beirut for another visit to the exiled ex-Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el Husseini.
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