Curb on Land Sales Imposed; Hit As ‘mockery of Mandate’; Storm in Commons

Measures restricting the transfer of land by Arabs to non-Arabs in Palestine were announced in the House of Commons today by Colonial Secretary Malcolm MacDonald and were immediately assailed by the Jewish Agency for Palestine as a "mockery of the League of Nations Mandate forbidding racial and religious discrimination."

Retroactive to May 18, 1939, the regulations constitute the first important step toward implementation of the White Paper issued by the British Government on that date as its solution of the thorny Arab-Jewish problem.

Under the White Paper, rejected by the Jews and never formally accepted by the Arabs, Britain undertook ultimately to establish an independent Palestine State in which the Jews would be crystallized as a one-third minority.

Although long expected, announcement of the land ordinance precipitated a stormy reaction in Commons and in Jerusalem, where it was published in the official gazette.

Labor Opposition Leader Clement Attlee, Conservatives and Liberals joined in immediate protests over the ordinance, while in Jerusalem Zionist leader David Ben Gurion warned in a letter to High Commissioner MacMichael that the Jewish people would not submit to "conversion of the Jewish national home into a ghetto."

At the end of an acrimonious exchange, Attlee announced that in view of the "entirely unsatisfactory explanation" given by the Colonial Secretary, who said failure to introduce the ordinance might "prejudice" the current peace in Palestine, he would submit a motion to Commons opposing the ordinance.

The ordinance sets up two zones, A and B, in which purchase of land by Jews will be either entirely prohibited or restricted.

Zone A comprises the hill country of Palestine, the Beersheba region and the congested Gaza area. In this zone, sale of land to Jews is prohibited "for the present at any rate."

Zone B comprises the plains and the Negeb, desert region in southern Palestine which recent Hebrew University surveys have found unsuitable for intensive agricultural development either because of saline water or swift evaporation of stored water In this zone Jews will still be able to purchase land from Arabs either freely or subject to some restriction.

Transfer of land in municipal areas throughout the country will, under the ordinance, remain unrestricted.

In announcing the measures, MacDonald said that a copy of them, accompanied by an explanatory memorandum, had been submitted to the League Council through the Secretary General and to Commons in the form of a White Paper. (Text of the explanatory memorandum, embodying a summary of the land ordinance, will be found on another page of this issue.)

Discussion of the ordinance in Commons centered largely around its relation to the League, which has not yet taken definitive action on the White Paper although a majority of the Mandates Commission rejected it.

To charges that issuance of the ordinance was in disregard of the League and contrary to the Mandates Commission’s attitude and would cause the "widest mistrust of the Government," voiced by Attlee, MacDonald declared the Government was fully prepared to air the question before the League Council if it so desired.

The Colonial Secretary said he fully realized the position of the League Council occupied with regard to the administration of the Mandate and for that reason had communicated a copy of the regulations to the Council.

Attlee charged that the Government was seeking to present the Council with a fait accompli and demanded to know why the regulations had not been withheld until it had been determined whether they were in accordance with the Mandate.

MacDonald replied that he had two alternatives, to publish a draft of the regulations and suspend operation indefinitely until the Council had had time to consider them, or to publish the regulations, effective immediately, inform the Council and express readiness if the Council so desired to attend a meeting and discuss them.

The Colonial Secretary asserted he would have preferred the former but faced a "delicate situation" in Palestine and many practical objections making that course extremely undesirable to follow. He said if the Council met and discussed the regulations, the Government would be bound to give the most serious attention to its views.

Leopold S. Amery, Conservative, who was Colonial Secretary from 1924 to 1929, pointed out that misgivings on the question were not confined to one side of the House and warned against creating an even more delicate situation, particularly if the League later decided that the action was not in accordance with the Mandate.

MacDonald replied that he realized the issue cut across party lines. He said he did not underestimate the sincerity of the feelings on all sides and declared that whatever course followed would be attended by disadvantages. The course taken, he added, was the "least disadvantageous" and recognized the obligations to the Council and other bodies.

Sir Archibald Sinclair, Liberal, declared that since the only impartial body (Mandates Commission) had ruled that the White Paper policy was contrary to the Mandate, it would have been better to postpone for a month or two operation of the regulations pending their consideration by the Council.

MacDonald said he had considered that course but had adopted the other as "wiser and better" because of the situation in Palestine and the "present circumstances."

Capt. Victor Cazalet, Conservative, asked why MacDonald had chosen this particular moment, after a half year of war when for the first time there was peace in Palestine and both peoples were working together loyally, to introduce a measure which would only "exasperate the Jewish position not only in Palestine but the world over."

Replying, MacDonald paid tribute to both communities in Palestine for cooperating and declared that failure to introduce control of land transfers might "prejudice" the existing peace.