"ملف ٣٢/١١ اللجنة الملكية المعنية بفلسطين" [و‎‎٢‎٠] (٣٠٨/٣٩)

Government of the State concerned should be responsible for the
purchase of such land, plantations and crops at a price to be fixed,
if required, by the Mandatory Administration. For this purpose a
loan should, if required, be guaranteed for a reasonable amount.
The political aspect of the land problem is still more important.
Owing to the fact that there has been no census since 1931 it is
impossible to calculate with any precision the distribution of popula
tion between the Arab and Turkish areas ; but, according to an
approximate estimate, in the area allocated to the Jewish State
(excluding the urban districts to be retained for a period under
Mandatory Administration) there are now about 225,000 Arabs. In
Tfcthe area allocated to the Arab State there are only about 1,250 Jews ;
but there are about 125,000 Jews as against 85,000 Arabs in Jerusalem
and Haifa. The existence of these minorities clearly constitutes
the most serious hindrance to the smooth and successful operation
of Partition. If the settlement is to be clean and final, the question
must be boldly faced and firmly dealt with. It calls for the highest
statesmanship on the part of all concerned.
A precedent is afforded by the exchange effected between the
Greek and Turkish populations on the morrow of the Greco-Turkish
War of 1922. A convention was signed by the Greek and Turkish
Governments, providing that, under the supervision of the League of
Nations, Greek nationals of the Orthodox religion living in Turkey
should be compulsorily removed to Greece, and Turkish nationals of
the Moslem religion living in Greece to Turkey. The numbers involved
were high—no less than some 1,300,000 Greeks and some 400,000
Turks. But so vigorously and effectively was the task accomplished
that within about eighteen months from the spring of 1923 the
whole exchange was completed. The courage of the Greek and
Turkish statesmen concerned has been justified by the result. Before
^fthe operation the Greek and Turkish minorities had been a constant
irritant. Now Greco-Turkish relations, are friendlier than they
have ever been before.
In Northern Greece a surplus of cultivable land was available
or could rapidly be made available for the settlement of the Greeks
evacuated from Turkey. In Palestine there is at present no such
surplus. Room exists or could soon be provided within the proposed
boundaries of the Jewish State for the Jews now living in the Arab
area. It is the far greater number of Arabs who constitute the major
problem ; and, while some of them could be re-settled on the land
vacated by the Jews, far more land would be required for the
re-settlement of all of them. Such information as is available
justifies the hope that the execution of large-scale plans for irrigation,
water-storage, and development in Trans-Jordan, Beersheba and the
Jordan Valley would make provision for a much larger population
than exists there at the present time.