Lord Lugard, British member of the Mandates Commission, proposed today that the United States Supreme Court be invited to pass judgment on the precise meaning of the terms of the League of Nations mandate on Palestine. Other tribunals that might be asked to rule on the terms of the mandate, under a proposal outlined by Lord Lugard in the Times, were the International Court of Justice or the Judicial Committee of the British Privy Council.
Lord Lugard’s plan, which he said was designed to remove the unfounded allegation that the Arabs had secured an advantage by terrorism or to dispel American belief that the White Paper on Palestine was contrary to the mandate, comprised the following points:
1) The British Government should announce that the consultation on creation of an independent state, scheduled under the White Paper to be held at the end of ten years, be held instead after five years; 2) the United States should be invited to send a representative to the consultation; 3) the British Government should first obtain a statement from the International Court of Justice, or the United States Supreme Court, or the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, on the precise meaning of the terms of the mandate; 4) scope of the consultation would be guided by the interpretation of the mandate; 5) the entire proposal would be conditioned on whether Jewish leaders would cooperate to give the transition scheme a fair trial.
The Manchester Guardian published a letter from the New Zionist Organization, signed by President Vladimir Jabotinsky and the presidents of Revisionist unions in all countries, protesting against the “proposed liquidation of Zionism,” The letter declared that if Britain was unable to fulfill the mandate it should hand it back to the League. It warned that the Palestine Jews, with the support of the Jewish people and friends all over the world, would not entrust their lives and property to the mercy of an Arab Government born of gangs. The Jewish masses, the statement declared, could not be restrained from proceeding to Palestine. “The Government,” it concluded, “is turning a peaceful, orderly Zionism into a bitter, merciless conflict in which the Jews had nothing to lose by failure and everything to gain by success.”
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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.
