the Arab standard of living. The Arab population is increasing rapidly and the increase is highest in the neighborhood of the Jewish colonies.”
Subsequent to the Arab riots of 1929, the British Government set up three successful inquiries to investigate the causes and to discover the extent to which economic grievances and in particular the dispossession of land were responsible for the hostile attitude of the Arabs.
The first Commission appointed was the Shaw Commission. This was followed by Sir John Hope Simpson’s report. Subsequently, Lewis French was charged with reporting on Arab dispossession and with drawing up a Development Scheme.
The first two reports, on their publication, were severely criticized for their references to the large number of dispossessed Arabs. Lewis French was appointed to make a special study of the land question after the report of Sir John Hope Simpson had aroused a storm of protest and elicited a reprimand from the League of Nations. While the French report had not yet been published, and its author has resigned his office, it has been widely claimed that the figures cited by him would definitely explode the legend that the Arabs are the sufferers as the result of Jewish immigration into the country.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
