Concluding his series of fourteen articles on the Palestine situation, Senator Royal S. Copeland will say in the Hearst newspapers tomorrow that Palestine would have been better off today if the league of Nations mandate had been entrusted to the United States as the late Lord Balfour once desired.
Referring to a letter written by Lord Balfour to Secretary of State Hughes in 1922, he writes:
“Lord Balfour was right. It would have been far better for the Middle East and for Palestine to entrust the mandate to America. Of course, it could not have been done because of our traditional attitude of opposition to foreign alliances and entanglements.”
This country cannot, however “evade its responsibility under the treaty,” Senator Copeland declares, concluding:
“We owe it to ourselves to inquire why the Great British Empire has failed to make safe the small population of Palestine. It is our duty to find out why the mandatory power has done nothing to bring together the Arab and Jewish leaders in an effort to promote a lasting peace. It is our right to question the wisdom of bringing into the Palestinian conflict the neighboring Arab chiefs in the capacity of mediators, a policy calculated to fan the blaze and extend the warfare.”
Senator Copeland’s articles will be followed by a series over the signature of Senator Warren Austin of Vermont, another member of the unofficial senatorial commission to Palestine. A general report of the commission’s findings will be published later.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
