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of this period be determined, because it depended on the success of constitutional developments and the cooperation of the people of Palestine, meaning Arabs and Jews. Britain would not relinquish its responsibility for government until it was satisfied that the communities’ sound integration would make the establishment of a proper government possible.

6. Jewish immigration would continue for five years until the Jews reached one-third of the population. After that, immigration would be subject to a decision by the constitutional bodies during the transitional period or to consultation between the British government and representatives of the Arabs and Jews.

Since it was impossible to accept this plan, some representatives of the Arab states introduced amendments. The most important were that an independent Palestinian government with Palestinian ministers should be established when the disturbances subsided; that an elected Palestinian assembly should draw up Palestine’s constitution; and that Britain’s responsibility should end and Palestine become fully independent within ten years. If this proved impossible for extraordinary reasons, a British-Palestinian-Arab conference would be held to consider the matter.

As for Jewish immigration, it would continue at its current rate, twelve thousand a year, for five years and then stop completely except with Arab consent.

But the British ministry made amendments to these proposals. The Arab delegations had already left London, so the Colonial Office sent the proposals to Egypt, where the delegations of the Arab states considered them. Finding them inconsistent with what they had agreed with the Colonial Office, they amended some of their provisions. After consulting the Palestinian delegation, they sent the proposals and amendments to the Higher Arab Committee for Palestine in Lebanon for consideration. I was then still in Lebanon and had not yet moved to Baghdad. The view was that these proposals had to be amended, and the committee then sent a delegation to Cairo carrying its position and proposals. The Arab delegations discussed them and drew up a new formula on their basis, which they communicated to the British government.

The British government, however, did not adopt the new Arab formula and issued its new political plan in a White Paper on 7 May 1939. It said that it had drawn it up in light of the London Conference discussions. When the Higher Arab Committee examined the White Paper, it announced its rejection of the political plan because it did not meet the demands of the Palestinian people and did not differ from the London proposals rejected by the Palestinian and Arab delegations, but fell short of them.

When Muhammad Mahmud Pasha, the Egyptian prime minister, examined the White Paper, he hastened