The Palestine Arab Executive presented to-day to the High Commissioner, Sir John Chancellor, the statement which it has adopted as the Arab reply to the Passfield White Paper, for transmission to the British Government in London and to the League of Nations in Geneva. The reply consists generally of a repetition of the Arab demands made repeatedly since the existence of the Palestine Mandate, namely, the withdrawal of the Balfour Declaration and the abolition of the Mandate, on the ground that the Declaration is in contradiction to Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations and the Mandate is contrary to the promises made to the Arabs to concede their national and natural rights.
The Arabs demand also the establishment of a Government in Palestine responsible to an elected Parliament.
We consider it the first duty of Great Britain, the statement proceeds, to prevent the transfer of Arab lands to others than Arabs and definitely to prohibit Jewish immigration into Palestine.
Under the Turks, the statement contends, the Arabs of Palestine enjoyed a wide measure of self-government, possessing administrative, municipal and Parliamentary Councils, and shared with the Turks in every form of administrative activity.
The reply concludes with a proposal that dispossessed Arabs should be provided with lands near Lake Huleh.
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