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by millions, far exceeding the present inhabitants of the country. () We never committed ourselves to making Palestine a Jewish State () but if more and moreJews gather to that Home and all is worked from age to age, from generation togeneration, with justice and fair consideration to those displaced and so forth,certainly it was contemplated and intended (at the time) that they might in thecourse of time become an overwhelmingly Jewish State.

There is no such country as Palestine. Palestine is a term the Zionists invented.There is no Palestine in the Bible. Our country was for centuries part of Syria.(The term) Palestine is alien to us. It is the Zionists who introduced it.

Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi, Syrian Arab leader to the Peel Commission

2 Where the Arab goes, it is often desert

The deputy chairman of the Commission, Sir Horace Rumbold, took up the ques-

tioning. Was there not, he asked, harsh injustice to the Arabs if Palestine attractedtoo many Jews from outside. Churchill replied that even when the Jewish Home will become all Palestine, as it eventually would, there was no injustice.

Why (Churchill continued) is there harsh injustice done if people come in andmake a livelihood for more (people), and make the desert into palm groves andorange groves? Why is it injustice because there is more work and wealth for everybody? There is no injustice. The injustice is when those who live in thecountry leave it to be desert for thousands of years.

When Rumbold pointed out the danger toBritish troops of the periodical disturban-ces in Palestine, Churchill replied that theidea of creating a National Home for theJews was the prime and dominating pledgeupon which Britain must act . If Britain

became weak, somebody else might have totake it on , but while Britain remained inPalestine that is what we are undoubtedly

pledged to . Rumbold spoke up for theArabs, who were, he said, the indigenous

population , subjected in 1918 to the inva- sion of a foreign race . Churchill objectedto the phrase foreign race . The Arabs, hesaid, had come in after the Jews. It was the

great hordes of Islam who smashed Palestine up. You have seen the terraces onthe hills which used to be cultivated , hetold Rumbold, which under Arab rule haveremained a desert. Rumbold insisted that the backwardness of Palestine was the resultof Turkish rule, but Churchill insisted that where the Arab goes it is often desert .When Rumbold spoke of the Arab civilization in Spain, Churchill retorted: I am glad they were thrown out. It was for the good of the world , he told Lord Peel a few mo-

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ments later: that the place should be cultivated, and it never will be cultivated by the Arabs .

Towards the end of the session, Rumbold asked Churchill when he would consider theJewish Home to be established, and Britains undertaking fulfilled. At what point? Rumbold asked. To which Churchill replied: When it was quite clear the Jewish pre-

ponderance in Palestine was very marked, decisive, and when we were satisfied that wehad no further duties to discharge to the Arab population, the Arab minority.

3 The aftermath

None of Churchills evidence was included in the Commissions Report. He was evenreluctant to have it printed secretly. There are a few references to nationalities, hewrote to Lord Peel on March 16, which would not be suited to appear in a permanent record.

The Peel Commission recommended to partition Palestine into two separate states, oneArab and one Jewish, reserving Jerusalem and a corridor to the sea as part of a

permanent British controlled enclave. Churchill opposed this decision, believing that itwas a breach of Britains pledge to the Jews, as expressed in the Balfour Declaration, toenable them to establish a Jewish Nation Home throughout the original area of theMandate, from the Mediterranean Sea to the River Jordan.

Hubert Luns

The famous Winston Churchill picture shown above:

In 1941, Churchill visited first Washington and then Ottawa. The PrimeMinister, Mackenzie King, invited the famous photographer Yousuf Karsh to bepresent and to observe Churchill's expressions, moods, and attitudes while he

addressed the Canadian Parliament. After the electrifying speech, I waited in the Speaker's Chamber, so Yousuf

Karsh tells us, where, the evening before, I had set up my lights and camera. ThePrime Minister, arm-in-arm with Churchill and followed by his entourage, startedto lead him into the room. I switched on my floodlights; a surprised Churchillgrowled: What's this, what's this? No one had the courage to explain. I timo-rously stepped forward and said: Sir, I hope I will be fortunate enough to makea portrait worthy of this historic occasion. He glanced at me and demanded:Why was I not told? When his entourage began to laugh, this hardly helpedmatters for me. Churchill lit a fresh cigar, puffed at it with a mischievous air, andthen magnanimously relented. You may take one. But to get the giant to walk grudgingly from his corner to where my lights and camera were set up some littledistance away was a feat! Churchills cigar was ever present. I held out an ashtray,

but he would not dispose of it. I went back to my camera and made sure thateverything was all right technically. I waited; he continued to chomp vigorously athis cigar. I waited. Then I stepped toward him and, without premeditation, butever so respectfully, I said, Forgive me, sir , and plucked the cigar out of hismouth. By the time I got back to my camera, he looked so belligerent he couldhave devoured me. It was at that instant that I took the photograph. The silence

was deafening. Then, Mr. Churchill, smiling benignly, said: You may take an-other one. He walked toward me, shook my hand, and said: You can even makea roaring lion stand still to be photographed.