Palestine to Come Up at League of Nations Council Meeting Next Month: Director of Mandates Section C

The Director of the Mandates Section of the League of Nations, M. Catastini, has arrived hero in order to see M. Marinkovitch, the Jugoslavian Foreign Minister, who is this year’s Rapporteur on Mandates to the League of Nations Council, with regard to the report drawn up by the Mandates Commission at its June session, on which M. Marinkovitch will report to the meeting of the League of Nations Council which is to be held in September.

The Passfield White Paper on the Palestine Policy which was published ten months ago, in October 1930, the Hope-Simpson Report published at the same time, and the Prime Minister’s letter of “authoritative interpretation” issued in February, have not yet been considered by the League of Nations Council. It had been anticipated that the White Paper and the Simpson Report would come up at the meeting of the Council held last May, but the decision of the League’s Council meeting in January not to call a special meeting of the Mandates Commission, and to leave the question over till its ordinary meeting in June had the effect of shelving the question till September. “I personally regard it as desirable,” M. Marinkovitch said in an interview with the J.T.A. in Geneva on the eve of the January meeting, “that the Council should be able to take up the consideration of the Palestine White Paper in May, instead of delaying it until the September session, the agenda for which is already heavily loaded, and the date too far removed.” For technical reasons, it was found impossible, however, to call an extraordinary meeting of the Mandates Commission, and the conclusions of the ordinary meeting in June could not come before the Council earlier than its September session.

“I believe the difficulties confronting the Zionist movement are only temporary,” M. Marinkovitch continued his interview. “I have confidence that Britain will not depart from the policy enunciated in the Balfour Declaration. The Jews may count on the sympathies of the States members of the League of Nations and on the public opinion of the British people. The Zionist work is of general interest to the entire world, and of benefit to Palestine itself. I have long been an adherent of Zionism,” M. Marinkovitch added.

At its June session, the Mandates Commission considered the White Paper in the light of the Prime Minister’s letter, the Palestine Development Scheme, with regard to which Dr. Drummond Shiels, the British Accredited Representative, notified it that the Government would not be bound by the Simpson Report, the new Tenants’ Protection Ordinance, the Palestine Legislative Council question, the relations between the Palestine Administration and the Jewish Agency, the Report of the Walling Wall Commission, and the conditions under which the concession to the Iraq Petroleum Oil Company was awarded for the purpose of conveying its oil pipe-line through Palestine territory to Haifa Harbour, in regard to which, it is believed, there was some criticism by the Mandates Commission on the ground that the Company had been given extensive privileges inconsistent with the terms of the Palestine Mandate.

The Mandates Commission is understood to have asked the British Government to provide further detailed information with regard to the distribution of land holdings in Palestine between Jews and Arabs, and with regard to the traffic in arms in Palestine.