themselves to build up the Jewish commonwealth. When once Great Britain was appointed trustee, they would, in conjunction with Great Britain, prepare and carry out a detailed scheme for building up the Jewish Commonwealth. The Jewish land-holding must first of all be greatly increased. By democratic legislation this could be brought about, with due regard to the rights of all other inhabitants. There was ample elbow-room there, as the land was very sparsely populated. It is obvious that a vast population can be brought into the country without the slightest encroachments upon the rights of the Arab peasant." Such, somewhat condensed, is the statement made by Dr. Weizmann, chairman of the Zionist Commission sent out under the auspices of the British government. Contrasted with the dreams of many believers in the "Return to Zion," it is very modest, but it represents a program which is perfectly possible to execute, and, what is at present much more to the point, it represents what the practical Briton believes to be the utmost which can be conceded in view of the promises made to the Arab kingdom.
For Husein, Sultan of the Hejaz, is no small force to be reckoned with. When Faisul, his son, entered Damascus, he "announced that he made no distinction between members of the Arab nation, of whatever creed or religion. I shall never betray the Arabs, and I trust that the Arabic language will attain the position that it deserves. It is the suffering of the Syrian nation and the atrocities which they have suffered from the Turks which have brought about this day." "The sword of the Arabs could not be sheathed until the other regions held by the Turks were freed," and he pointedly included Aleppo, far to the north in Syria, in the "Arabian country." All Syria might be claimed on this basis.
Yet when he arrived in London, he could declare "The two main branches of the Semitic family, Arabs and Jews, understand one another, and I hope that, as a result of interchange of ideas at the Peace Conference, which will be guided by ideals of self-determination and nationality, each nation will make definite progress towards the realization of its aspirations. Arabs are not jealous of Zionist Jews, and intend to give them fair play, and the Zionist Jews have assured the Nationalist Arabs of their intention to see that they, too, have fair play in their respective areas. Turkish intrigue in Palestine has raised jealousy between the Jewish colonists and the local peasants, but the mutual understanding of the aims of Arabs and Jews will at once clear away the last trace of this former bitterness, which, indeed, had already
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