British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume I - Page 3

CHAPTER I
integral portions of its territory, subject to the safeguards above mentioned in the interests of the indigenous population.

In every case of mandate, the Mandatory shall render to the Council an annual report in reference to the territory committed to its charge.
The degree of authority, control, or administration to be exercised by the Mandatory shall, if not previously agreed upon by the Members of the League, be explicitly defined in each case by the Council.
A permanent Commission shall be constituted to receive and examine the annual reports of the Mandatories and to advise the Council on all matters relating to the observance of the mandates".

The fourth paragraph of this Article prescribed that the wishes of certain communities formerly belonging to the Turkish Empire should be a principal consideration in the selection of the Mandatory and President Wilson pressed for the despatch of an inter-Allied Commission to Syria and Palestine to discover the wishes or the peoples of these two areas. This project failed, however, and the President then sent an unofficial American Commission which toured these areas in June and July, 1919, and privately reported that the Arabs wanted complete independence for a united Syria and Palestine, but, if supervision was necessary, their first choice was the United States, their second Great Britain. 'I'be Zionists had already made their wishes known; on the 18th December, 1918, the American Jewish Congress had adopted a resolution asking for the trusteeship of Great Britain and the same request was made in a scheme submitted by the Zionist Organization to the Supreme Council of the Peace Conference on the 3rd February, 1919. On the 25th April, 1920, the Supreme Council at San Remo allotted the Mandate for Palestine to Great Britain and on the 1st July, 1920, the military government of O.E.T.A. was replaced by a British civil administration beaded by Sir Herbert Samuel, the first High Commissioner for Palestine. Turkish sovereignty over Palestine was not, however, formally renounced by Treaty until the signature on the 10th August, 1920, of the 'Treaty of Sevres. Under Article 95 of that Treaty it was agreed to entrust, by application of the provisions of Article 22 of the Covenant, the administration of Palestine to a Mandatory who would be responsible for putting into effect the declaration originally made on the 2nd November, 1917, bv the British Government and adopted by the other Allied Powers: The text of the Balfour Declaration was embodied in this Article-of the Treaty of Sevres.

The Palestine Mandate.

5. The next step was the determination of the terms of the Mandate. On the 20th November, 1920, the United States Gov-

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