'File 11/32 Royal Commission on Palestine' [‎18v] (36/308)

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of the Treaty guarantees for the protection of minorities,
if those four towns were kept for a period under Mandatory
administration.
(iv) Jaffa is an essentially Arab town and should form part
of the Arab State. The question of its communication with the
latter presents no difficulty, since transit through the Jaffa—
Jerusalem Corridor would be open to all. The Corridor, on the
other hand, requires its own access to the sea, and for this
purpose a narrow belt of land should be acquired and cleared on ^
the north and south sides of the town.
(v) While the Mediterranean would be accessible to the
Arab State at Jaffa and at Gaza, in the interests of Arab trad|
and industry the Arab State should also have access for com
mercial purposes to Haifa, the only existing deep-water port on
the coast. The Jewish Treaty should therefore provide for the
free transit of goods in bond between the Arab State and Haifa.
The Arab Treatv, similarly, should provide for the free
transit of goods in bond over the railway between the Jewish
State and the Egyptian frontier.
The same principle applies to the question of access for
commercial purposes to the Red Sea. Ihe use of that exit
to the East might prove in course of time of great advantage
to both Arab and Jewish trade and industry, and, having
regard to those possibilities, an enclave on the north-west
coast of the Gulf of Aqaba should be retained under Mandatory
administration, and the Arab ireaty should provide for the
free transit of goods between the Jewish State and this enclave.
The Treaties should provide for similar facilities for the
transit of goods between the Mandated Area and Haifa, the
Egyptian frontier and the Gulf of Aqaba.
4. Inter-State Subvention {
The Jews contribute more per capita to the revenues of Palestine
than the Arabs, and the Government has thereby been enabled to
maintain public services for the Arabs at a higher level than would
otherwise have been possible. Partition would mean, on the one
hand, that the Arab Area would no longer profit from the taxable
capacity of the Jewish Area. On the other hand, (1) the Jews
would acquire a new right of sovereignty in the Jewish Area :
(2) that Area, as we have defined it, would be larger than the existing
area of Jewish land and settlement : (3) the Jews would be freed
from their present liability for helping to promote the welfare of
Arabs outside that Area. It is suggested, therefore, that the Jewish
State should pay a subvention to the Arab State when Partition
comes into effect. There have been recent precedents for equitable
financial arrangements of this kind in those connected with the