Royal Commission Reported Favoring Dominion Status for Palestine

Details of “a remarkable plan to solve the Palestine problems,” involving the end of the British mandate and a new dominion status for the Holy Land — stated to be favored by most of the Royal Commission members — are reported in the Sunday Dispatch.

The plan, as outlined in the Dispatch, is based on municipal autonomy for towns and cities in Palestine. The mandate would be ended by agreement with the League of Nations. A dominion constitution would be established.

The central Government, under the constitution, would be responsible for customs, public security, financial relations, and immigration and land problems.

Communities would be organized so that Jewish and Arab towns would be given complete municipal independence, Jews being controlled by Jews and Arabs by Arabs as far as possible. This would mean that the larger cities, like Ramleh, Lydda and Jaffa, in which the Moslems predominate, would have Arab self-government, with full protection accorded to minorities. The same principle would apply to the areas in which the Jewish element predominates. Smaller Jewish and Arab towns and villages would have the right to safeguard their own interests.

The ratio of Arabs to Jews in the population, which was eleven to one before the war and is now four to one, would be fixed at a lower scale than the present one, which would be decided upon, and immigration laws be altered regulating the annual influx of Jews to meet these conditions.

The new dominion would become a member of the League, Defense of the country would be the responsibility of a British garrison for a period of years. Such a plan, it is contended, would meet the demands of both sides and would be conducive to the welfare of the country and its people.