The report of the Palestine Inquiry Commission just made public here consists of 15 chapters, the first being an introduction by the Commissioners on the number of the sittings, documents, journeys, etc.; the second a description giving the geography and history of the country; the third giving a detailed narrative of the recent events; fourth, dealing at considerable length with the complaints of the Palestine Zionist Executive against the Grand Mufti and against the Arab Executive; fifth the complaints of the Palestine Zionist Executive against the Palestine government; sixth bearing on the early events the August outbreaks in which the Commissioners endeavored to explain why they had not confined their activities into inquiring into the actual occurrences but have dealt also with major questions of policy.
In this chapter the Commissioners said: “On the evidence before us, we are satisfied that grievances originating long before the Day of Atonement, 1928, contributed to the outbreak of August. Further, it is our view that without such grievances the outbreak would not have occurred, or if it had occurred, would not have attained the proportions that it reached. To this extent we consider that the political and economic grievances of the Arabs must be regarded as having been the immediate causes of the disturbances. But even if this weren’t our view, we should have been bound to examine those grievances in the light of a second part of our task, since it is clear that recommendations, even when most carefully considered and most thoroughly applied could not, unless they went to the root of the matter, succeed in avoiding a recurrence of the recent unfortunate disturbances. For these reasons we felt it incumbent upon us to examine the grievances of long standing.”
The three following chapters deal with the question of immigration, land, and constitutional development which are by far the most important of the matters to which the Arab complaints are related. Chapter ten deals with the minor Arab grievances, namely the granting of concessions to Pinchas Rutenberg and Moses Novomejesky, the position of Ottoman subjects, born in Palestine now resident abroad, the high level of taxation, and lastly, a remission of part of the debt due to the Palestine government by the municipality of Tel Aviv.
Chapter eleven is concerned with the differences inherent in the Mandate, chapter twelve with defence and security, chapter thirteen with an analysis of the causes of last Augusts’s outbreak, fourteen with a summary of the findings and the recommendations, and fifteen, the conclusion.
The report also contains four maps, one a general map of Palestine, the second showing the distribution and classification of the Jewish settlements, the third a map of Jerusalem, indicating particularly the Wailing Wall area, and the fourth a map indicating the distribution and size of the Jewish land holdings.
The four diagrams annexed to the report deal with the growth of the Jewish population in Palestine on the following assumption: First, the diagram of Jewish immigration at the rate of 25,000 per year and a natural increase of 1 percent among all sections of the population; second, a diagram of Jewish immigration at 20,000 per year and a natural increase of 12 percent per thousand; the third, Jewish immigration with a natural increase of 1 percent, and the fourth the Jewish immigration at 10,000 per year and a natural increase of 19 per 1,000.
These diagrams were prepared by assistant chief secretary Mills. Though the diagrams are based on hypothesis, they indicate the time at which, under given conditions, the Jewish population should in theory be equal to the Arab population. From diagrams one, two, and three, it appears that equality would be reached in 1948, 1956 and 1969 respectively, while on the conditions assumed in diagram four, the Jewish population would still be a half-million less than the Arab population when the total of three million, which the Commission seems to regard as the maximum for Palestine, has been reached.
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