The number of Palestine Arabs who can make out a case for compensation on the ground that they were dispossessed of their land as a result of Jewish immigration into the country will not total six hundred, Sir Arthur Grenfell Wauchope, Palestine High Commissioner, informed the Mandates Commission of the League of Nations at its session in November, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency learns.
The Palestine High Commissioner, in his statement to the Mandates Commission, the Minutes of which will be made public shortly, exploded the legend that Jewish immigration into Palestine is responsible for the dispossession of Arab cultivators, and that economic grievances, as has been alleged, were responsible for the Arab riots of 1929.
Sir Arthur reported that the total number of Arabs who registered their claims for compensation by the first of October, 1932, was 2,826. Of this number 1,800 cases were completely rejected. Three hundred and sixty-five claims were approved, while the remainder still await consideration, the High Commissioner stated.
The number of approved claims is only one-sixth of the total entered. Assuming that the same proportion will be maintained in relation to the cases which still await investigation, the total number of Arabs who can make out any case for compensation for land will be under six hundred for the entire country, Sir Arthur stated.
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