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

ZIONISM AND PALESTINE 99
perfect a peace that the Government denuded it of all
its defences—as the succeeding competent but unfortunate
Administration found to their cost in the ghastly
summer of 1929. The bitterness surviving that tragedy
was still evident in 1931, when I observed an almost
complete social cleavage between the British and the
Jewish communities. Since then Palestine had gone so
rapidly ahead, in wealth as well as in population, that
by the spring of 1936 I felt justified, despite one or two
anxious letters from Arabs and Jews, in writing: "The
present High Commissioner has succeeded in winning
the confidence of the Jews to a degree unattained by any
of his predecessors, and has had the good fortune
(and the courage) to have his term extended for a further
period of five years. He has under him, permanently
stationed, a repressive force such as no other High
Commissioner has wielded, so that, whatever other
problems may assail him, he is at least free from
that haunting obsession—the breakdown of Public
Security. ..." Prophecy is indeed the most gratuitous
of human errors.
If this chapter has contained more of British lack of
policy and of the difficulties of practical Zionism than
of Arab errors and crimes (the word cannot be avoided),
the reason is in part that Zion and England stand
responsible as creators of the situation. 1 As wielders of
all the resources of modern civilization, it was for them
to set a pace which native Palestine could follow. As
springing from the New Testament as well as from the
Old, and from the gracious humanism of the ancient
world, it was theirs to call a tune with which the rhythms
of simpler peoples might without violence be moulded
1 "We insisted upon having the mandate for Palestine assigned
to us. We also virtually dictated the terms upon which the Council
of the League endorsed the action of the Principal Allied Powers,
and made itself responsible for supervising our mandatory administration."
Economist, March 1936.