Mr. Lewis French, the Director of Palestine Development, has been co-opted a member of the Government Executive Council, which hitherto has consisted of the High Commissioner and his three principal officers, the Chief Secretary, the Attorney-General and the Treasurer.
It is rumoured here that Mr. French will remain in Palestine as Director of Agriculture in succession to Mr. Sawer, the present Director, who is now out of the country and who, it is reported, will not return to Palestine.
The Colonial Office, on enquiry by the J.T.A., discredits the rumour that Mr. French is to be appointed Director of Agriculture in Palestine, and states that after concluding his investigations in connection with the Development Scheme in Palestine, Mr. French will return to London.
When the Mandate for Palestine was promulgated, it was intended by the Government to establish a Legislative Council, consisting of the High Commissioner, ten official members and twelve elected members, eight Moslems, two Jews and two Christians. The Arabs, however, boycotted the elections to the Council, which the Government thereupon declared null and void, and in consequence the Government of Palestine is being conducted without participation by representatives of the population. The present system is that Ordinances are considered first by the Executive Council, consisting of the High Commissioner, the Chief Secretary, the Attorney-General (till recently Mr. Norman Bentwich), and the Treasurer. They are then submitted to the Advisory Council, which consists of the members of the Executive Council, together with five heads of Departments and one of the District Governors. They have also to be approved by the Secretary of State for the Colonies, and are then published in the “Official Gazette” in the three languages, English, Hebrew, and Arabic, and “except in rare cases of special urgency”, they are not finally enacted until a month after publication, during which amendments can be suggested. This has been the method of Government since 1922.
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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.
