The Mandates section of the secretariat of the League of Nations was openly accused today of having become pro-Arab by William Martin, political editor of the influential Journal d’Geneve. Analyzing the Balfour Declaration, M. Martin says that after Great Britain received all the political advantages it wanted through the Declaration it began to assume a pro-Arab attitude.
“It was believed,” M. Martin writes, “that England entered Palestine to create there a Jewish National Home. This was a mistake. England went there to protect the Arabs.” He then charges that the Mandates section of the League’s secretariat began to sympathize with the pro-Arab interpretation of the Palestine Mandate as given by Great Britain. This pro-Arab sympathy became evident, M. Martin claims, since Dr. William Rappard, now a member of the Mandates Commission, left the directorship of the Mandates section of the secretariat.
M. Martin notes with satisfaction that the Mandates Commission “which had for a long time tolerated this interpretation has finally put an end to it.” The criticism voiced by so influential a newspaperman and political observer is considered extremely important here and not to be underestimated in view of the fact that the Mandates section, just as other sections of the secretariat, is supposed to maintain a strict impartiality.
The present head of the Mandates section of the secretariat is Vito Catastini, an Italian. The other members are F. T. B. Friss of Denmark, N. de Freire de Andrade of Portugal and E. R. de Haller of Switzerland.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
