League circles assume that no discussion will take place at the opening of the 60th session of the Council of the League of Nations today when Hjalmar J. F. Procope, the rapporteur for the Mandates Commission, gives the Commission’s report on Palestine to the Council. It is also expected that the British government will make a statement that it is unable now to submit the promised constructive program for the future policy in Palestine.
Italy because of its close interest in the future of the Middle East, the anti-Zionist London Daily Mail, on the eve of the meeting of the Council of the League of Nations which will take up the Mandates Commission’s report on Palestine, has renewed its campaign to get Great Britain to relinquish the Mandate. The campaign has been started with an editorial entitled “Get Out of Palestine”.
Yesterday the Journal Geneve carried a story from its Rome correspondent indicating that the wide-spread comment in the Fascist press on the Mandates Commission’s report showed an interest on the part of Italy in the Palestine question other than in a mere settlement of the difficulties arising from last year’s disturbances.
The British delegation to the meeting of the League’s Council has been reinforced by Dr. Drummond Shiels, under-secretary for the Colonies, who will leave for Palestine shortly after the conclusion of the Council’s sessions. Sir John Chancellor, High Commissioner of Palestine, and Sir John Hope Simpson, whose report is based on his investigation into problems of land settlement, development and immigration in Palestine, are also attending.
The Geneva correspondent of the Morning Post says that Arthur Henderson, British Foreign Secretary, will utilize his leisure time in Geneva before the opening of the Council’s sessions for making a few discreet inquiries on the spot as to what has been going on behind the scenes with respect to the drafting of the Mandates Commission’s report which the British government found so distasteful.
Surveying the agenda of the Council, the Manchester Guardian points out that England has usually been in the fortunate position of receiving nothing but praise at the hands “of this expert body but this year the report on the Palestinian disorders and the British government’s tart rejoinder give an unusual significance” to the Palestine question on the agenda.
The Guardian says that “if we continue to adopt a petulant attitude we may do real damage to the League’s authority by persuading other nations that we value the League of Nations’ judgment only when it is favorable to us or when our own interest is not at stake”.
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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.
