British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume I - Page 55

CHAPTER II.

15th June, 1939.

The Secretary of State for the Colonies (Mr. MacDonald) made a statement before the Permanent Mandates Commission regarding "the policy which His Majesty's Government, with the approval of Parliament, have decided to pursue" as laid down in the White Paper of 17th May". In its report to the Council of the League the Commission stated that four of its members "did not feel able to state that the policy of the White Paper was in conformity with the mandate" and that the other three members considered "that existing circumstances would justify the policy of the White Paper, provided the Council did not oppose it". 'They concluded their observations with the following words. "All the members agree in thinking that the considerations put forward in the report of the Royal Commission of 1937 and in the preliminary opinion presented by the Mandates Commission in August of the same year have not Jost their relevance : the solutions envisaged in these two documents (excluding the setting-up of two independent States withdrawn at the outset from mandatory control) should be borne in mind at the appropriate moment"**.

20th July, 1939.

In regard to the position of the Permanent Mandates Commission and the League Council in relation to the White Paper of May, 1939, Mr. MacDonald made the following remarks during debate in the House of Commons :-

“we recognise fully that the Permanent Mandates Commission have a. certain function to perform in this matter. It is purely an advisory function. They present their report not to His Majesty's Government, not to Parliament, but to the Council of the League of Nations, and their function towards the Council is a purely advisory one. The authority in this matter is the Council of the League itself; and when the Council receive the report of the Permanent Mandates Commission we shall, of course, be present at the Council. We shall present to the Council then our arguments for believing that this policy is entirely within the terms of the Mandate .

I give the House the assurance straight away that if the Council of the League were to reach a decision which would, in our view, involve the necessity of altering the Mandate, then we shall not take steps to bring about that alteration until this House bas bad another opportunity of considering the situation" ***.
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* Minutes of the 36th Session of the Permanent Mandates Commission held from 8th-29th June, 1939, pages 95-102.

** Minutes of the 36th Session of the Permanent Mandates Commission held from 8th-29th June, 1989, pages 274-275.

*** Hansard, Vol. 350, cols. 806 and 807.

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