British-palestine Committee Complains Against Failure to Have Debate on Palestine

Voicing the complaint that Parliament will recess tomorrow without having had an opportunity to discuss the Palestine situation, although a year has passed since the disturbances took place, the British Palestine Committee, in a bulletin issued today, warns that “when Parliament is silent permanent officials rule, because the ministers, however well-meaning, are not strong enough to make their will prevail without parliamentary help.”

The Committee’s bulletin also asks, “Are the Arabs financed solely by contributions from within and outside of Palestine? The Arab case before the Wailing Wall Commission was so well presented as to make one wonder from what source the Arabs obtained the money for their highly efficient organization and propaganda.”

Returning to its complaint over the failure to permit a debate on the Palestine question, the Committee’s bulletin points out that “the Palestine government is suffering from too much administration and too little inspiration. The fragmentary disussions were not very helpful. Only the fullest parliamentary discussion could illuminate the difficulties through which we are passing.

“We no longer have to deal with a direct frontal attack on the principles of the Mandate and the demand that we evacuate Palestine in the interests of economy. Those arguments perished of their own absurdity. Our trouble is more insidious. Lip service to the Mandate is freely paid, but when we ask ourselves what the Palestine government has actually done to further the Jewish National Home we find nothing but a string of negations.

“Latterly these negations have developed into actual opposition. The reputation of this country is suffering. Owing to the timidity of successive administrations the credit accumulated by the Balfour promise is being dissipated. We are accused of a breach of trust and crowds in America and in Eastern Europe, which formerly cheered us, now denounce us.”