News Brief

The recent events in Palestine and the future policy to be pursued, continue to be the subject of discussion in the British press.

There has been a little slackness along the lines of allowing too much to the Moslems, says the “British Weekly.” Perhaps the best solution would be for Britain to make Palestine a crown colony.

Concerning the Holy Sites, it says, when peace is restored, an effort should be made to nationalize the genuine Holy Sites in which people of various faiths have equal historical interests. The thinking Jew would gladly see Isaiah’s old prophecy fulfilled and the Temple Court become “a House of Prayer for all nations.”

Writing in the “New Leader,” Frank Hancock declares: “We have inherited from the Tory administration an aggravated Palestine problem. Under the old diplomatic rule of divide and conquer we connived, perhaps, to encourage a continuous feud between the Arabs. One wonders whether the administration is altogether dissatisfied with the turn affairs have taken. Already the Liberal and Tory journals are crying for a strong permanent garrison. Has disorder been encouraged, or at any rate not discouraged, in order to supply us with the pretext for a firm hand in the Near East?” the writer asks.

The name of the late Brigadier General Sir Gilbert Clayton, High Commissioner of Iraq and former Chief Secretary of Palestine, was freely mentioned in semi-official circles as the man who would have been most likely to solve the Palestine problems, a number of British papers declare. “The untimely death of Sir Gilbert Clayton is little short of a national calamity,” the “Yorkshire Observer” says. “The Palestine situation demands careful inquiry. Particularly necessary is the strictest scrutiny as to why the authorities, knowing, presumably, of the growing tension, were not better prepared. The public ought to know why the resources of law and order were so pitifully inadequate in a situation, admittedly dangerous.”

The “Daily Mail” quotes the interview of Lord Passfield with the Jewish delegation, terming it “strange.”

A number of English papers carry the following obviously inspired notice to the effect that: “The Colonial Office is surprised that Lord Passfield’s statement should be considered ‘strange.’ It is perfectly innocuous and contains nothing which the British public does not know by heart.”

One official said there is little doubt the interview was given in the hope of enlightening Zionist opinion in the United States. It is not often realized how many Jews there are in the United States. Of every three New Yorkers, one is a Jew. The statement consists of nothing but contradictions of a few extraordinary notions which have been seized upon by the American Zionists.

The campaign urging Britain to abandon the Mandate for Palestine is continued in today’s issue of the “Daily Mail,” as well as in a number of provincial papers.