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Prince Abd al-Munʿim headed the Egyptian delegation, Nuri al-Saʿid the Iraqi delegation, Prince al-Husayn the Yemeni delegation, and Tawfiq Abu al-Huda the Jordanian delegation. The delegations included well-known figures such as Ali Mahir, Tawfiq al-Suwaydi, and Abd al-Rahman Azzam. The Arab Committee delegation consisted of Jamal al-Husayni, Amin al-Tamimi, George Antonius, Awni Abd al-Hadi, Musa al-ʿAlami, and Alfred Rock. The Arab Committee agreed that two members of the Defense Party, Raghib al-Nashashibi and Yaqub Farraj, would join the Palestinian delegation.

At the end of January 1939, the conference convened at St James’s Palace and was opened by Prime Minister Chamberlain. It held several sessions, but they produced no result because of British maneuvering on one side and Jewish intransigence on the other. Finally, the British negotiators accepted the Arab viewpoint by agreeing to end the Mandate and establish an independent state, but they did not specify the principle or duration of a transitional period. They then agreed to make the period ten years, renewable, on condition that the Jews approve it. The British insisted on this, and the conference broke up without result. Before the delegations returned, the British delegation read to them the plan the British government would follow and asked them to accept it, even though it would be issued by the British side alone.

The British plan can be summarized as follows:

1. Establishing an independent Palestinian government linked to a treaty guaranteeing Britain’s military and commercial interests.

2. A Palestinian constituent assembly, elected or appointed, would draw up a constitution for a state providing freedom to visit the holy places and protection for the communities under Britain’s undertakings to Arabs and Jews, with a special position for the Jewish national home in Palestine and guarantees for international interests for which Britain considered itself responsible.

3. A transitional period would precede the establishment of the Palestinian government, during which the mandatory power, Britain, would be responsible for government.

4. After order returned and security was established, measures would be taken in two stages to add a number of Palestinians, meaning Arabs and Jews, to the advisory council and another number to the executive council, while the high commissioner retained certain powers.

5. The stages of constitutional development during the transitional period could not be determined, nor could the end