Page:Harry Charles Luke and Edward Keith-Roach - The Handbook of Palestine (1922).djvu/46

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THE BRITISH MANDATE
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Palestine, besides controlling many projects of agriculture and colonization.

The meaning of the Balfour Declaration can best be summarized in the following extracts from the High Commissioner's Interim Report on the Civil Administration of Palestine, 1920–21 (cf. Part I., § 2, and infra), and from a statement made by him on the 3rd June, 1921:

'They (sc. the Jews) ask for the opportunity to establish a "home" in the land which was the political, and has always been the religious, centre of their race. They ask that this home should possess national characteristics—in language and customs, in intellectual interests, in religious and political institutions. . . .

'If the growth of Jewish influence were accompanied by Arab degradation, or even by a neglect to promote Arab advancement, it would fail in one of its essential purposes. . . . In a word, the degree to which Jewish national aspirations can be fulfilled in Palestine is conditioned by the rights of the present inhabitants. . . . '

In the statement of the 3rd June, 1921, the Declaration is defined to mean that 'the Jews, a people who are scattered throughout the world, but whose hearts are always turned to Palestine, should be enabled to found here their home, and that some among them, within the limits that are fixed by the numbers and interests of the present population, should come to Palestine in order to help by their resources and efforts to develop the country, to the advantage of all its inhabitants.'

The Military Administration, 1917–1920.—At the head of the Military Administration of Palestine General Allenby, whose headquarters were then at Ludd, appointed Brigadier-General (now Sir Gilbert) Clayton, who was also Chief Political Officer to the Commander-in-Chief. The first Military Governor of Jerusalem was Borton Pasha, Postmaster-General of Egypt, who, owing to a breakdown in health, was succeeded after two weeks by Mr. Ronald Storrs, Oriental Secretary to the Residency in Cairo. The Governorate was first established in Hughes's Hotel, but