Evening star., 1924-07-10
ZIONIST HOPES HIT
by ARAB DEMANDS
Control of Palestine by Jews
Asserted to Be Many Years
in Future.
BRITISH TASK DIFFICULT
Must Stand Between Hostile Ele-
ments and Pacify Intense
Religious Rivalries.
BRITISH TASK DIFFICULT
BY CONSTANTINE BROWN.

Correspondence of The Star and Chicago Daily
News.
JERUSALEM, Palestine, June l.
When Field Marshal Allenby drove
the Turks out of Palestine he decided
that the Moslem custodian of the holy
sepulcher should be replaced by a
Christian. This decision was known
Immediately to all religious communi-
ties in Jerusalem, and the fights and
intrigues that enSued so disguised
Gen. Allenby that he decided to leave
the custody of the holy place to the
old Arab guardians.
About the same thing has happened
to the Palestine state. The conf1ictin e
desires of the Arabs and Jews to run
the country compelled Great Britain,
as the mandatory, to take over the
administration. Although there are
many Arab and Jewish officials in va
riouS government departments, the
main positions are filled by BritonS
sent from the colonial Office in Lon
don. The high commissioner repre-
sents the King of Great Britain eX-
actly as does the viceroy in India.
He is all-powerful within the state of
Palestine. It's laws are made by the
high commissioners proclamations.
British Task Difficult.
1t is true that an attempt was made
DS the nlSn COMMISSIONER TO nave the
various races elect a parliament, but
the Arabs, who form an overwh elm
ing majority of the population $780,
900 out of 10000 inhabitants), re-
fused to vote, Their reason was that
the parliaments activities would be
subject to the high commissioners
veto. Moreover, the Arabs were to
have twelve representatives, while
the rest of twenty-five were to be
Jews and Christians and officials ap-
pointed by the commissioner
A few weeks in Palestine make one
realize that the British have no other
way out, if they want to avoid an
archy and chaos in this country. All
their efforts to reconcile the Arabs
and the Jews have failed The rea-
sons for this failure are many, but
two seem most important. They are,
first, the irresponsible promises made
to the Arabs by British generals dur
ing the war in order to gain their CO.
operation against the Turks, and,
second, the exorbitant demands of the
ZlonistS in Europe and America, who
took the Balfour declaration about
providing the Jews with a home in
Palestine as a promise to restore the
Jewish state in d country where the
Jews are mere minority. NJ
Arabs Help Sought.
During the war. and especially in
1915, when the allies situation was
far from satisfactory, the British
made great efforts to obtain Arab as
sistance against the Turks. The
Arabs, who had enjoyed almost COM
plete autonomy under the Turks, be-
gan to be worried about the national
fstic tendencies Of the Young Turk
administration that was trying to
denationalize the Arabs. The Arab
language began to be banished from
the law courts and the governors,
who. until the war, only nominally
represented the sultan and We're sat
isfied when they could obtain with
out bloodshed the taxes required by
Constantinople, started more ef-
fective control over the Arabs.
The British approached the most in
huential Arab chief, the Emir Hus-
sein of Mecca. Although the actual
promises made were never publish ed
1t is undoubtedly true that the British
did offer HuSsein the crown of the
kingdom of Arabia, which was to
have comprised Syria, Mesopotamia
and the Hedjaz. 1t is proha BILE also
that the British made vague promises
In regard to Palestine
Naturally, all these promises were