The "Sunday Times" is much -too critical of the British Government when it writes editorially, concerning the latest outbreak in Palesfine:—"Let us be honest with ourselves and admit that we have made a miserable failure of our task in Palestine." It is yet to be proved that Great Britain has failed, but there may be much criticism not only of the British ever accepting the burden which Palestine was inevitably to mean, and of the attitude of both the Arabs and Jews towards what was being attempted. The promise to make Palestine the national home of the Jews was one of those pledges given at the time of the Great War. It sounded well, and represented a desire to meet the requirements of the Jews for a country of their own, What could have been better than to have restored them to the land of their forefathers, to have enabled them afresh to work out their destiny, to have done something to redress the wrongs which they have endured for the last two thousand years? The proposal from that point of view had everything to commend it, and there is nothing to wonder at that it found so ready a response in the hearts of Jew and gentile alike. But the claims of the races involved, and their racial characteristics do not sufficiently appear to have been taken into account, and the disorders which have raged in the past and those which are raging at present are evidence of that omission, and the one major fault of which the British policy in Palestine can be accused. If it were at any time thought that the settlement of a portion of the Jews in Palest e would solve all difficulties, it is now apparent that it would do nothing of the sort, Palestine is not hi enough to provide accommodation for all the Jews in the world—it was never believed that they would emigrate there if it were. In eff the proposal to establish. national home fo the Jews was not one intended to embrace the whole of Jewry but only such as those who might care to settle there. In the meantime for practically two thousand years Palestine had become increasingly important as a home for a section of the Arabs. They were not particularly successful in developing the land, such being more or less foreign to] their racial genius.
The advent of the Jews into Palestine was bound to create trouble. Obtaining land by purchase from the Arabs, in a perfectly proper form of procedure, they commenced to develop their properties in a manner which showed that, despite drawbacks, there was much in the general scheme to be commended. The Arab, tempted by the prospect òf ready mo! n many cases only too readily parted with his property, but when the cash had gone, he found himself destitute and without the means of obtaining a livelihood. The transi-[tion from satisfaction with a bargain to anger at dispossession, no matter how properly it had been effected, naturally created a sense of resentment, and it was within the course of a comparatively few years that a large body of Arab discontent was created which ever since has proved a stumbling block to the harmonious prosecution of the scheme. That sentiment found expression in all manner of outbreaks against the Jews, and it is to be admitted) with regret that more recent developments have shown that the Jews themselves have not abstained from contributing to the general disorder. The situation between the two races is not unlike the dissension prevailing between Moslems and Hindus in India, and Palestine is torn between two factions only too anxious to fight at the drop of the handkerchief, or even without that, if necessary In what way has the British policy failed?
certainly could not have sought to prevent the Jews acquiring land from the Arabs. To have done so would, from the very commencement, have denied the possibility of the scheme ever being successful, for the immigrant Jews would have been obliged either to confine their activities to the cities, or to have undertaken the development of land which the Arabs would not take up, namely the less fertile tracts. Nor was there any means, once an Arab had parted with his holding, of making sure the proceeds would be invested wisely. The British Government might conceivably have bought out the Arab farmer and settled him elsewhere but if he did not want to leave Palestine, or even that district of the country where he lived, that solution would also be condemned to failure.
The developments in Palestine have had the effect of reducing large numbers of Arabs to membership of the dispossessed classes, and the fact that that is of their own doing, makes it none the easier for them to bear, On the face of it there does not appear to be any solution ready at hand. The chief cause of the trouble appears to be that in the settlement of the Jews on the land haste was not made slowly enough. There were irresistible factors at work in other parts of the world which made that impossible, for so many Jews already needed a place to flee unto, and the answer to the criticism of the "Sunday Times" appears to be that if there has been a failure, the British Government is not solely to be blamed, but that a great deal of the trouble is rooted in causes over which it had no control whatsoever. While it is admitted that some such assistance as that which it was proposed to give the Jews in Palestine was imperatively necessary, it must be recognized that whatever was undertaken had to be done with every safeguard to make sure that the Arabs received full justice. The claim of Jewry to Palestine may have its foundations in tradition, but that claim has been more or less an academic one for approximately two thousand years, during which, or the greater proportion of which, the Arabs have acquired a factual as apart, from a traditional claim to the land. The present behaviour of the Jews in Palestine is open to criticism. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that the initiative in the present disorders has been taken by them, and the number of casualties gives some corroboration, It is not believed that the leaders of Jewry in Palestine countenance what is being done by the younger sections of their community, but the fact remains that irresponsibles are making their contribution towards embarrasing he British Government. That is a dangerous game to play, for contingencies are conceivable in which the British forces which are being used for the re-establishment of peace and good order might be required elsewhere, and if the Jews were left to their own devices they might not be in so fortunate a position as they are now. Britain has not failed in Palestine: she has not been so suc= cessful as was at first hoped, but the fault is not entirely hers, and those responsible for present disorders are not entirely blameless the matter, 1938 and All That The Shanghai Directory for 1938—younger for of the China Hong List—is off the pre:
ix months to come she will be the acknow leged "Miss Shanghai" of this city's directories, Her debut has been eagerly awaited, and so many people are demanding the pleasure of entertaining her that those responsible for her fear that she may become exhausted long before her admirers are satisfied. Compared with the issue of 1937, the Shanghai Directory for 1938 is a little slimmer. North of the Creek accounts for this difference: Broadw y two columns of 1937 residents and shops are now listed in less than half a column; Scott Road's 14 inches of space in 1937 becomes two inches in 1938 and so on. But for the most part there has been merely a res hu! population, as witness the expansion in Avenue Edward VII and Great Western Road. From the compiler's point of view this year's edition of the Shanghai Directory constitutes a record, Never in the history of its publication have the changes in Shanghai's community been so vast. Yet practically every foreign name and all the more important Chinese names are here all pinned down for us like butterflies, each in their places and tabbed with their occupations and business and private addresses. Between July, 1937, and July, 1938, there have been times when the need for a new Shanghai Directory at all would have been strongly open to doubt. Yet the Hong List published last January was out of print in two months, the demand fo so great. Many Hong-Listless offices a therefore, have been looking forward to this July's debutante in directories, Hongkong's War Hysteria Visitors to Hongkong must be curiously imed by a brand of war hysteria, almost on the sadistic, which the Colony is noncing if the newspapers are any accurate guide. In some respects, it is not a new phenomenon because when nations go to war blood lust often prejudices and exacerbates feelings, but as Hongkong is a British colony and is not involved on any belligerent status with the countries in the present unfortunate conflict the situation does seem strange. Instead of reporting or describing developments the tendency appears to be to chronicle events in terms of slaughter, the inspiration apparently being den ed from the terrible Japanese air raids on Canton which have offended public feeling throughout the world, and, from a local point of view far as Hongkong ís concerned, find particular emphasis among the hundreds of thousands of refugees who have swarmed into the Colony as.a result, Nevertheless, there must be a smacking of sadistic pleasure in such headlines as this, splashed across the full page of one newspaper:
'CHINESE RELENTLESSLY SLAY ENEMIES."
Anybody knows that in a war both sides slay each other, relentlessly or otherwise, but the difference between stressing a news point in a telegram regarding the war and demonstrating what can only be interpreted as a savage glee is too obvious to be missed. Another headline reads as follows: "LARGE NUMBER OF JAPAN-ESE SOLDIERS KILLED." There is little reference' to the circumstances. It-is just a question of the slaughter and an appeal to continued savagery. The hostilities now: passing their first year have produced an unfortunate record of death and destruction, but the period has also produced some courageous attempts to bring the hostilities to a close. Nothing can be done unless there is a general appreciation of the fact that commonsense, reason and balance must be maintained if the situation is not to develop a far greater degree of impasse than'it possesses at present. And this, it might be said, applies to both parties in the conflict, but the opportunity before Hongkong to bring his home to its public should not be overlooked.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.