British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume I - Page 62. Historical Summary: May - November, 1941, The period of political Dormancy during the Early Years of the World War.

CHAPTER II.

steady since the autumn of 194.0, dwindled in February and did not revive appreciably before the end of the year, except, in the case of Jewish recruits, for a spurt in May and June and, following an intensive recruiting campaign by the Jewish Agency, a substantial increase during the last half of October and early November. The falling off in the number of Jewish recruits in February to April, in July to mid-October and again at the end of the year was attributed in part to a revival of propaganda by the official Jewish organizations in favour of a Jewish national army.

May-June, 1941.

Following the arrival of German aircraft in Syria and Iraq during May, the pro-Mufti elements in Palestine prepared to create trouble, but received no response from the Arab population as a whole, and the collapse, in June, of the Rashid Ali regime in Iraq, which was regarded by the majority of Palestinian Arabs as having brought shame on the Arab world, was generally welcomed. 'The subsequent entry into Syria by British and Free French troops was popular among Arabs on account of the prospects of Syrian independence. The Syrian campaign was followed, in July and August, by the smuggling into Palestine on a considerable scale of arms abandoned by the Vichy forces.

July, 1941.

In July terrorist activity, directed by the Irgun Zvai Leumi against Jews, mainly in Tel Aviv, to extort funds for party purposes, came to a head and was stopped following a warning given by Government to responsible Revisionist leaders. In the same month the Histadruth and the Jewish Agency showed hostility towards proposed war legislation for the settlement of labour disputes, and threatened a general strike.

2ncl November, 1941.

Field Marshal Smuts, broadcasting on Balfour Day, stated that "the case for the Balfour Declaration bas become overwhelmingly stronger. Instead of the horror of new ghettos in the twentieth century let us carry out the promise and open up the National Home''.

The prestige of the Mufti's supporters in Palestine, which had waned following the collapse of the Rashid Ali revolt and Raj Amin's flight from Baghdad to Iran on 30th May, 1941, suffered a further set-back when Raj Amin openly took refuge with the Axis powers, arriving in Rome on 28th October and a few days

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