Palestine is held under a Clause “A” Mandate, Mr. H. W. Williams said in the House of Commons to-day in the debate on the second reading of the Import Duties Bill. This, he went on, is interpreted as meaning that for preference purposes it should be treated as a foreign country. That is a unilateral declaration on our part, he continued, and I hope that Clause 5 of this Bill means that it has been decided to treat Palestine as an integral part of the British Empire.
It will be a matter of profound satisfaction to the Home Secretary (Sir Herbert Samuel), Mr. Williams proceeded amid laughter, if under the Mandate Imperial Preference is granted to Palestine.
We ought, he concluded, to get rid of the unconditional “favoured nation” clause and replace it by some conditional form which will enable us to give some concessions for concessions received.
Clause 5 of the Bill reads: Neither the general ad valorem duty nor any additional duty shall be chargeable in respect of goods which are shown to the satisfaction of the Commissioners to have been consigned from and grown, produced or manufactured in any part of His Majesty’s Dominion outside the United Kingdom, other than a country to which the last preceding section of this Act applies, or any territory which is under His Majesty’s protection.
His Majesty may by Order in Council declare that this action shall apply to any territory in respect of which a mandate of the League of Nations is being exercised by the Government of the United Kingdom as if that territory were territory under His Majesty’s Protection.
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.
