British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume I - Page 292

CHAPTER VIII.

and harvesting of both a winter and a summer crop. A Bill was therefore published in 1931 amending the definition of "statutory tenant" so as to extend protection to any person who cultivated a holding "for one year or a period necessary to raise two successive crops". The Bill was not proceeded with on account of the recommendation of the Royal Commission * that a Committee should be set up to consider the whole question of land legislation in Palestine, including the Cultivators (Protection) Ordinance.

132. During the war the application of the provisions of the Cultivators (Protection) Ordinance has been circumscribed in two respects by means of Defence Regulations :-

(a) In February, 1942, State Domain was excluded from the scope of the Ordinances". The reason for this was that it had become impossible to prevent trespassers on State Domain from acquiring rights under the Ordinance, thereby preventing Government from utilising these State Domains in the best interests of the community. It was considered that it was undesirable to tie the bands of Government, who, when determining the use to which State Domain should be put, would naturally safeguard the position of occupiers of long standing.

(b) Consequent upon the introduction of this Defence Regulation exempting State Domain, other landlords pressed for similar protection, and in the result, so as to enable all available land to be put under cultivation during time of war, a second Defence Regulation*** was introduced in December, 1942, withdrawing the protection of the Ordinance from persons who occupied or cultivated a holding for the first time subsequent to the date of the Regulation.

133. With the tightening up of legislation in favour of the occupier there has been increasing criticism, particularly from Jews, that "it affords too great an opportunity for bogus claims and puts a premium on trespassing, with the result that endless delays and great expense are incurred in resisting and buying off these claims before a clear title and undisputed possession of laud can be obtained . In 1941 the State Domain Committee expressed the view that the Ordinance had become what they described as "a serious obstacle to the reasoned development of the country" in that it placed in the hands of tenants
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* Paragraphs 29 and 69 of Chapter IX of their Report .
** Defence Regulations, 1939. Regulation 48A(2). Kantrovitch, Vol. I, p. 78.
*** Defence Regulations, 1939. Regulation 48A(l). Kantrovitch, Vol. I, p. 73.

Royal Commission Report, page 243.

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