“journal De Geneve” Sees Need for Active Declaration of British Policy in Palestine

The necessity for an active and positive policy in Palestine by the British government and the need of declaring such a policy is one point in the Inquiry Commission’s report with which the whole world will agree, writes the “Journal de Geneve,” which is influential in League of Nation circles. The “Journal” points out that the mere fact of the Commission giving expression to this desire implies “that serious blame is attached to the Mandatory ‘who carried the policy of reducing the garrisons too far.’ The Commission, in its search for the general causes of the disturbances, should perhaps have taken this into account.” The editorial also expresses surprise that the Commission, “under the pretext of equality, criticizes the influence of the Zionist Executive over the Palestine government, whereas the Arabs themselves refused in 1922 the same power.” The “Journal” also asks on what the Commission bases its declaration that the country cannot support a larger agricultural population than exists today, “since the Commission itself urges the necessity for an inquiry in order to establish facts in this connection.”

“The part of the report dealing with land and immigration,” concludes the “Journal de Geneve,” “although containing interesting data, is beside the point. The commissioners did not master sufficiently the facts and arguments with which they were supplied.”