Passfield White Paper Macdonald Interpretation Simpson Report and Palestine Development Scheme Comin

In addition to the annual report of the Palestine Administration for 1930, the Permanent Mandates Commission of the League of Nations will consider at its meeting which opens here on Tuesday, the 9th. inst., the Passfield White Paper, Mr. Ramsay MacDonald’s “letter of authoritative interpretation of the White Paper”, addressed to Dr. Weizmann, Sir John Hope Simpson’s report on Palestine Immigration, Land Settlement and Development, and the J.T.A. representative here learns, also a new comprehensive document dealing with the events which occurred in regard to Palestine last year, including the issue of the White Paper, the MacDonald letter, etc., and laying down the lines of the future policy of the British Government in Palestine, particularly in connection with the new Palestine Loan and Development Scheme.

The Mandates Commission will also have before it the usual annual report of the Jewish Agency on the development in Palestine, in which the Agency, without touching on the political problems, reviews the Jewish achievements in the country during the past year, in the economic, cultural and health spheres, etc. The Jewish Agency is also submitting to the Mandates Commission this year a detailed reply to Sir John Hope Simpson’s report. It is not yet known here in what form the Jewish Agency will present its case with respect to the political events of the past year, such as the issue of the Passfield White Paper and the MacDonald letter, the Palestine Development Scheme, etc. As far as the J.T.A. representative understands, the reply to the White Paper drawn up by Mr. Leonard Stein, the Honorary Counsel to the Jewish Agency, has not been officially presented to the Mandates Commission, but it has been privately circulated among all the members of the Commission.

The Palestine Jewish National Council (Vaad Leumi) has also presented a memorandum to this session of the Mandates Commission, and several petitions have arrived from Palestine.

An interesting question on the agenda of the meeting is the discussion of the conditions under which a Mandate can be terminated. The Mandates Commission was instructed by the League of Nations Council to study this question in connection with the decision of the British Government to recommend next year the admission of Iraq into the League of Nations, which will automatically terminate the British Mandate for Iraq. The Commission will not deal with the question exclusively from the point of view of the Iraq Mandate, but will consider it from the wider aspect of the conditions under which any Mandatory regime can be terminated.