General Sir Arthur Wauchope, the fourth High Commissioner for Palestine, was sworn in this morning, the ceremony at Government House being attended by about 300 people, heads of Government Departments and of the various religious and civil bodies in the country.
There is no struggle more interesting than the struggle between the desert and the sown, the new High Commissioner said after the swearing-in ceremony. I have come here with an open mind, without preconceived ideas, without plans or schemes. I am a soldier and I have served in many different countries, whose prosperity I have tried to increase.
Quoting Field-Marshal Lord Plumer, the second High Commissioner, General Wauchope said that law and order is the first condition; prosperity and peace, goodwill and understanding the second, and confidence, trust and faith by the people in the Government, and by the Government in the people is the third condition.
The Chief Justice for Palestine, Sir Michael Mac-Donnell, addressing the High Commissioner after he had sworn him in to his office, referred to Palestine as “a distressful country”, too often a field of battle, in which, he said, it is impossible to succeed unless one is endowed with the patience of Job in addition to other qualities.
This country, though small, he went on, looms large in the thoughts of millions of people throughout the world, who subject every action taken here under microscopic examination, and are on the watch for any deviation that is made.
Palestine is composed of divergent creeds and conflicting races, he went on, and arouses passions and creates conflicting emotions, and therefore the High Commissioner’s duty is one of great gravity and seriousness.
No reference was made in the ceremony to the Palestine Mandate or to the policy of the Jewish National Home in the speeches of either the High Commissioner or the Chief Justice, beyond the citation of the Order-in-Council under which the High Commissioner is appointed.
Neither of the two speeches was translated into Arabic or Hebrew, but the King’s Commission was read in all the three official languages of the country. The ceremony was altogether more simple than that at the swearing-in of Sir John Chancellor, General Wauchope’s immediate predecessor.
The reception at the station, when the new High Commissioner arrived in Jerusalem, was confined to about a dozen high Government officials. A royal escort of aeroplanes met the High Commissioner’s train at Lydda and accompanied it to Jerusalem.
Chief Rabbi Kook, Dr. J. L. Magnes, the Chancellor of the Hebrew University, Dr. Ch. Arlosoroff, Dr. Maurice B. Hexter, and Dr. Werner Senator, members of the Jewish Agency Executive, Mr. M M. Ussischkin, the head of the Jewish National Fund, Mr. I. Ben-Zvi, the Palestine Labour leader, Dr. David Yellin, and Mr. Joseph Meyuhas were among the guests at to-day’s reception at Government House.
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