"ملف ٣٢/١١ اللجنة الملكية المعنية بفلسطين" [ظ‎‎٨] (٣٠٨/١٦)

4
Chapter II.—The War and the Mandate
In order to obtain Arab support in the War, the British Govern
ment promised the Sherif of Mecca in 1915 that, in the event of an
Allied victory, the greater part of the Arab provinces of the Turkish
Empire would become independent. The Arabs understood that
Palestine would be included in the sphere of independence.
In order to obtain the support of World Jewry, the British
Government in 1917 issued the Balfour Declaration. The Jews
understood that, if the experiment of establishing a Jewish NationJ[
Home succeeded and a sufficient number of Jews went to Palestine/
the National Home might develop in course of time into a Jewish
State.
At the end of the War, the Mandate System was accepted by the
Allied and Associated Powers as the vehicle for the execution of the
policy of the Balfour Declaration, and, after a period of delay, the
Mandate for Palestine was approved by the League of Nations and
the United States. The Mandate itself is mainly concerned with
specific obligations of equal weight—positive obligations as to the
establishment of the National Home, negative obligations as to
safeguarding the rights of the Arabs. The Mandate also involves
the general obligation, implicit in every Mandate, to fulfil the primary
purpose of the Mandate System as expressed in the first paragraph
of Article 22 of the Covenant.
This means that “ the well-being and development ” of the people
concerned are the first charge on the Mandatory, and implies that
they will in due course be enabled “ to stand by themselves.”
The association of the policy of the Balfour Declaration with the
Mandate System implied the belief that Arab hostility to the former
would presently be overcome, owing to the economic advantages
which Jewish immigration was expected to bring to Palestine a
whole.
Chapter HI—Palestine from 1920 to 1936
During the first five years of the Civil Administration, which was
set up in 1920, a beginning was made on the one hand with the
provision of public services, which mainly affected the Arab majority
of the population, and on the other hand with the establishment of
the Jewish National Home. There were outbreaks of disorder in
1920 and 1921, but in 1925 it was thought that the prospects of
ultimate harmony between the Arabs and the Jews seemed so
favourable that the forces for maintaining order were substantially
reduced.
These hopes proved unfounded because, although Palestine as a
whole became more prosperous, the causes of the outbreaks of 1920
and 1921, namely, the demand of the Arabs for national independence