Lawrence of Arabia, Zionism and Palestine - The World War I ...

128 ZIONISM AND PALESTINE
policy". They might well be. "Ministersand Opposition
leaders are receiving a steady stream of telegrams from
the United States protesting against the White Paper."
No doubt. They were not the only protests we were
likely to receive in a Presidential-election year.
There was a full-dress debate in the Commons,
characterized by a general moderation and sense of
actuality unique on this theme. The Secretary of State
for the Colonies, Mr. Malcolm Macdonald, fairly routed
his numerous opponents of all three parties, whose vote
of censure was rejected by a Government majority of
163. It was time. We could not afford another 1936
in 1940. The allegiance of our Near-Eastern Allies and
the good relationship of friendly neutrals had already
been tested by events in Palestine and had hitherto not
been found wanting. The rulers of Egypt, Saudi Arabia,
and Iraq were no less embarrassed by the complaints
of their Palestinian co-religionists than were our loyal
Moslem fellow-subjects of India. This was no moment
to strain them further. To reintroduce mistrust by even
appearing to wobble upon this decision would have been
to disconcert and unsettle the growing confidence of
Palestinian moderates; to play gratuitously into the
hands of the ex-Mufti of Jerusalem and his satellites, in
cricket parlance to offer Dr. Goebbels a half volley, to
which he would open his shoulders and which he could
hardly have failed to lift over the pavilion.
Zionists were from their point of view doubtless
justified in registering their protest, for in Palestine
unprotested decisions are apt to be registered as accepted
and the case to have gone by default. But the responsible
mandatory Government is not only justified but, is bound
in duty and in prudence to hold fast, and to see that
both halves of the mandate are faithfully and practicably
maintained.