The Maccabaean
VOL. 34
British Policy in Palestine
¶ "It is a high task to aid in the upbuilding of the Holy Land. I have accepted it gratefully. On my arrival in Palestine I shall make a public statement of policy in some detail. Meantime I would wish to make known the general principles which will be followed by the Administration.
¶ "Complete religious liberty will be maintained in Palestine. The places sacred to the great religions will remain in the control of the adherents of those religions. A civilian administration for the country will be at once established. The higher ranks will consist of British officials of ability and experience. The other ranks will be open to the local population irrespective of creed. Order will be firmly enforced. The economic development of the country will be actively promoted.
¶ "In accordance with the decision of the Allied and Associated Powers, measures will be adopted to reconstruct the Jewish national home in Palestine. The yearnings of the Jewish people for 2,000 years, of which the modern Zionist Movement is the latest expression,
will at last be realized. The steps taken to this end will be consistent with a scrupulous respect for the rights of the present non-Jewish inhabitants. The country has room for a larger population than it now contains, and Palestine properly provided with roads, railways, harbors, and electric power, with the soil more highly cultivated, the waste lands reclaimed, forests planted, and malaria extirpated, with town and village industries encouraged, can maintain a large additional population not only without hurt, but, on the contrary, with much advantage to the present inhabitants. Immigration of the character that is needed will be admitted into the country in proportion as its development allows employment to be found.
U Above all, educational and spiritual influences will be fostered, in the hope that once more there may radiate from the Holy Land moral forces of service to mankind. These are the purposes which, under the high superintendence of the League of Nations, the British Government, in the exercise of its Mandate for Palestine, will seek to promote.”