Mandate for Palestine – Report of the Mandatory to the LoN

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REPORT

 

by His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom

of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the

Council of the League of Nations

on the Administration of

 

PALESTINE AND

TRANS-JORDAN

 

for the year 1937

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REPORT BY HIS MAJESTY'S GOVERNMENT IN THE

UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN

IRELAND TO THE COUNCIL OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS

ON THE ADMINISTRATION OF

PALESTINE AND TRANS-JORDAN FOR THE YEAR 1937.

PALESTINE

INTRODUCTORY.

POSITION, ETC.

 

Palestine lies on the western edge of the continent of Asia between latitude 30° N. and 33° N., Longitude 34° 30' E. and 35° 30' E.

On the south-west it is bounded by Egyptian territory, on the south-east by the Gulf of Aqaba, on the east by Trans-Jordan, on the north by the French Mandated Territories of Syria and the Lebanon, and on the west by the Mediterranean.  The boundaries are as follows:–

South-west.–From a point on the Mediterranean coast north-west of Rafa, passing in a south-easterly direction to the south-west of Rafa, to a point west-north-west of Ain Maghara; thence to the junction of the Gaza-Aqaba and Nekl-Aqaba roads, from whence it continues to the end of the boundary line at the point of Ras Taba on the western shore of the Gulf of Aqaba.

South-east.–From Ras Taba on the Gulf of Aqaba to a point two miles west of Aqaba, thence up the centre of the Wadi Araba the Dead Sea, and the Jordan, up the centre of the River Yarmuk to the Syrian frontier.

North.–The northern boundary was laid down by the Anglo-French Convention of the 23rd December, 1920, and its delimitation was ratified in 1923.  Stated briefly, the boundary runs from Ras el Naqura on the Mediterranean eastwards to Metulla and across the upper Jordan valley to Banias, thence to Jisr Banat Yaqub, thence along the Jordan to the Lake of Tiberias and on to El Hamme station on the Samakh-Deraa railway line.

West.–The Mediterranean Sea.       

AREA AND CLIMATE.

 

2. The average length of Palestine from south to north is about 160 miles and its extreme width from east to west is less than 70 miles, the total area being approximately 10,100 square miles inclusive of a water area of 261 square miles (the Dead Sea, Lake Tiberias and Lake Huleh).  In size it is therefore comparable with Wales or Belgium.

3. The climate of Palestine, affected by the neighbouring deserts of Arabia and Nubia as well as by nearby temperate zones, is characterized generally by a dry, warm, but not excessively hot summer, and a mild winter with heavy periodical rainfalls accompanied by high, cold winds; frost is rare.  But the typical climate is varied by the diverse topography of the country.  In the south and south-west there are wide expanses of sand dunes and desert.  The remainder of the country falls naturally into three longitudinal strips–the maritime plain, the mountainous regions (or central highlands), and the Jordan

valley.  Each of these strips, which are more closely described below, is climatically    distinct.

The climate of the maritime plain is warm but equable; the heat of summer and the cold of winter are both tempered by the westerly winds from the Mediterranean.  In the central highlands there is a greater range of temperature both daily and seasonal, and the maximum temperature is a few degrees lower than in the coastal plains.  Snow and hail occasionally fall in Jerusalem and Hebron, and the winter storms are accompanied by penetrating winds which necessitate the use of clothing suitable  for  a  cold  English   climate.

The Jordan valley is tropical.  The high air pressure and the excessive heat in summer combine to produce most oppressive conditions, but the winter in this region is  warm and balmy.

The maritime plain and the central highlands are both healthy, though the one, on account of greater humidity, is relaxing in its effects, while the other, through sudden changes of temperature, predisposes to chills and respiratory complaints.

4. The following records are typical of the three climatic zones:–

5. Rainfall is of vital importance in Palestine and any reduction in its quantity arouses concern for the prospects of agriculture and water conservation generally.  The mean volume of annual rainfall is roughly equal to that of the rainfall in the east of    England.

There are two well-marked periods of precipitation.  The "former rain" in October and November is not usually large; during December, January and February, the rainfall steadily increases; in March it begins to abate, and it is practically ended in April.  The characteristic winds are the moist west and southwest of winter and the dry north and north-west of summer.  Desert heat is brought by the sirocco from the hot deserts of the south or east generally in April and May and occasionally in September and October.

6. Along the greater part of the western seaboard lies a stretch of fertile plain of sand and sandy loam soil.  In the south this plain has an average width of about 20 miles, but it gradually narrows to the north until at Mount Carmel, near Haifa, the hills approach to within a few hundred yards of the sea.  Beyond Carmel the plain widens again, but in this area it is marshy and malarial.

The second strip consists of two distinct mountainous regions divided sharply by the Plain of Esdraelon.  To the north of that plain are the mountains of Galilee extending beyond the Syrian frontier and rising at Jebel Jermak to a height of 3,934 ft. above sea-level; to the south are the mountains of Samaria and Judea, which in places reach heights little less than those of Galilee.  Most of this second strip of country is desolate and stony, but at irregular intervals there occur stretches of fertile land capable of deep tillage.

The Plain of Esdraelon, which cuts so sharply through the mountain system of Palestine, is roughly triangular in shape. Though the soil is here of a heavier and more clayey texture than that of the coastal plain, Esdraelon is proverbially fertile and is especially suitable for cereal production.

 

The third and eastern strip of country is the Jordan valley, a natural depression which, starting from sea-level in the extreme north of the country, falls gradually to a depth of 1,300 ft. below that level at the Dead Sea, about 100 miles to the south.

7. The capital of Palestine is Jerusalem, situated in the midst of the hills of Judea, and the principal towns are Haifa, with its modern harbour, in the north at the entrance to the plain of Esdraelon; Jaffa, a second port which lies some 40 miles west- north-west of Jerusalem; Tel Aviv, which is contiguous to Jaffa; and Nablus, the ancient Sichem, in the hills of Samaria.  Jerusalem has a majority of Jewish inhabitants; in Haifa the Arab and Jewish elements are approximately equal in numbers; Tel Aviv is an entirely Jewish township of 150,000 inhabitants.  In Jaffa a large majority of the people are Arabs, and in Nablus, apart from a small community of Samaritans, all the people are Arabs.

Other important towns where the population consists of both Arabs and Jews are Hebron, 20 miles to the south of Jerusalem; Tiberias, on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee; and Safad, a remote town in mountainous country in the extreme north of Palestine.

 

CHANGES IN PERSONNEL, 1937.

 

From Palestine.

 

8. During the year the following left Palestine:–

Mr. J. Hathorn Hall, C.M.G., D.S.O., O.B.E., M.C., Chief Secretary to Government, was appointed British Resident, Zanzibar.

Sir Michael F. J. McDonnell, Chief Justice; Mr. H. E. Bowman, C.M.G., C.B.E., Director of Education; Mr. J. E. F. Campbell, C.B.E., District Commissioner, Jerusalem District; Mr. R. G. B. Spicer, C.M.G., M.C., Inspector General, Police Force and Prisons Service; Lieut.-Colonel W. Hudson, C.B.E., M.C., Postmaster General; Mr. E. T. Richmond, Director of Antiquities; Mr. S. J. Gilbert, Senior Veterinary Research Officer, Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, retired on pension.

Mr. Max Nurock, O.B.E., Assistant Secretary, Secretariat, was appointed Assistant Chief Secretary, Uganda.

Mr. R. Le Mare, Senior Assistant Treasurer, was appointed Accountant, Nigeria.

Dr. W. P. H. Lightbody, Senior Medical Officer, was appointed Assistant Director of Medical Services, Sierra Leone.

Mr. J. P. Attenborough, Senior Inspector Department of Education, was appointed Education Officer, Aden.

The appointment of Mr. F. G. Horwill, Examiner of Banks, terminated on expiration of contract.

 

To Palestine.

 

Mr. W. D. Battershill, C.M.G., formerly Colonial Secretary, Cyprus, was appointed Chief Secretary to Government.

Sir Harry Herbert Trusted, K.C., formerly Attorney-General, was appointed Chief Justice.

Mr. W. J. FitzGerald, K.C., M.C., formerly Attorney-General, Northern Rhodesia, was appointed Attorney-General.

Major A. Saunders, O.B.E., M.C., formerly Inspector-General, Nigerian Police, was appointed Inspector-General, Police Force and Prisons Service.

Mr. A. S. Kirkbride, O.B.E., M.C., Assistant British Resident, Trans-Jordan, was appointed District Commissioner, Galilee and Acre District.

Mr. G. H. Webster, O.B.E., formerly Deputy Postmaster General, was appointed Postmaster General.

Mr. R. Scott, formerly Assistant District Officer, Uganda, was appointed Assistant Secretary, Secretariat.

Mr. W. R. McGeagh, formerly Assistant Secretary, Zanzibar, was appointed Assistant Secretary, Secretariat.

Mr. J. F. Cornes, formerly Cadet, Nigeria, was appointed Assistant Secretary, Secretariat.

Mr. M. C. Greene, formerly President District Court, Cyprus, was appointed British Puisne Judge.

Mr. T. V. Scrivenor, formerly Assistant District Officer, Tanganyika, was appointed Assistant District Commissioner.

Mr. G. G. Grimwood, formerly Cadet, Nigeria, was appointed Assistant District Commissioner.

Mr. R. Newton, formerly Assistant District Officer, Nigeria, was appointed Assistant District Commissioner.

Mr. H. C. Willbourn, M.C., formerly Assistant Postmaster-General, Kenya, was appointed Deputy Postmaster-General.

Mr. A. L. Peters, formerly Assistant Treasurer, Nigeria, was appointed Senior Assistant Treasurer.

Dr. W. J. E. Phillips, M.C., formerly Medical Officer, Cyprus, was appointed Senior Medical Officer.

Mr. F. R. Mason, formerly Agricultural Officer, Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States, was appointed Deputy Director of Agriculture and Fisheries.

 

9. Government has under consideration a scheme for the training and instruction of officers selected for service in Palestine in conformity with the recommendation in paragraph 43 of Chapter VI of the Royal Commission's Report concerning the selection and training of senior administrative staff.

Government is also examining the means by which British officers may be encouraged and given greater opportunity to acquire proficiency in Arabic and Hebrew.      

 

PUBLIC SECURITY.

 

10. During the year covered by this Report, public security in Palestine was seriously disturbed by a compaign of murder, intimidation, and sabotage conducted by Arab law breakers, which on a few occasions provoked Jewish reprisals.

This general description of public security in Palestine during 1937 calls for amplification.  The terrorist campaign took the form of isolated murder and attempted murder; of sporadic cases of armed attacks on military, police and civilian road transport; on Jewish settlements and on both Arab and Jewish private property; while in the autumn there was a revival of lawlessness and violence by armed Arab bands which persisted until the end of the year.  Outwardly the life of the country did not appear to be unduly affected, but towards the end of the year economic conditions seriously deteriorated.     

11. During the first five months lawlessness was generally confined to the Northern District and to the Jerusalem Municipal area.

12. In the Northern District in January an attempt was made on the life of the Mayor of Haifa and a notable of the town was killed by Arab terrorists.  In February there was an increase of intimidation with violence of Arabs by Arabs, an Arab police constable being shot dead near Haifa on the 22nd of the month.  At the end of the month there was a serious case of cattle theft from a Jewish settlement near Tiberias.  There were also attacks on individual Jews, including the brutal murders of a young Jewish settler near Beisan and a Jewish doctor in Beisan.  During March the Safad, Nazareth and Tiberias sub-districts continued to be unsettled and on the 13th and 14th of the month five Jews were murdered by armed Arabs, three of them near their settlement in the hills above the southern end of Lake Tiberias.  The other two were shepherds who were brutally killed near Nazareth by a band of marauders who stole four hundred sheep and goats belonging to the Jewish settlement of Kfar Hahoresh.             

In the first fortnight of April there was a recrudescence of murder in the urban and rural sub-districts of Haifa resulting in the deaths by shooting of the Arab Vice-Mayor of Tiberias and an Arab Assistant Superintendent of Police, whose Arab orderly was assassinated at the same time.

13. In the Jerusalem Municipal Area the month of March was marked by two serious outbreaks.  On the 6th a Jew was wounded in the Old City and this attack was followed later in the day by the murder of one Arab and the wounding of another near a Jewish suburb of the town.  On the 17th of the month a bomb, thrown in the Jaffa road, wounded 19 Jews (including two policemen) and one British soldier, and some hours later three further bombing outrages occurred, four bombs being thrown into Arab cafés.  These three later incidents resulted in the death of one Arab and the injuring of ten.  Both on the 6th and the 17th March a curfew was at once imposed after the incidents.  During the rest of the month and the whole of April the Jerusalem Municipal area remained comparatively undisturbed; but in the middle of May a Jew was wounded and an Arab killed.

Elsewhere in the country sporadic shooting at Jewish settlements and occasional attacks on Arab property had persisted.  In January and February there were further incidents of armed highway robbery and hold-ups, and on two occasions in January the Police engaged parties of bandits on the Nablus-Jenin road and inflicted casualties; but after February there was an almost complete cessation for four months of highway brigandage, which, as stated in the Annual Report for 1936 (Introductory Chapter, paragraph 40 (d)), had been frequent during the last three months of 1936.

                    

14. On the 13th June an unsuccessful attempt was made in Jerusalem by three armed Arabs on the life of Mr. R. G. B. Spicer, C.M.G., M.C., the Inspector-General of Police.  His British chauffeur was wounded.          

On the 30th June and on the 3rd July respectively attacks were made on a member of the Nashashibi family at Jaffa and on the Mayor of Bethlehem in his house.              

15. On the 1st July a new Police Division for the Northern Frontier was formed consisting of one British Deputy District Superintendent of Police, two Palestinian inspectors, 83 British and 128 Palestinian constables.  It was entrusted with the control of the Palestine Syrian frontier from Ras an Naqura in the west to Samakh in the east in co-operation with the Trans-Jordan Frontier Force.              

On the 14th July for the purposes of administrative convenience the Northern District, which comprised the Phoenicia, Galilee and Samaria divisions, was reorganized as two Districts: the Haifa sub-districts (urban and rural) and the Samaria division remained under the District Commissioner, Haifa, and a new Galilee District comprising the Galilee Division and the Acre sub-district was created with Headquarters at Nazareth.  The two Districts are called "Haifa and Samaria" and "Galilee and Acre" respectively.        

16. The last 10 days of July witnessed a revival of lawlessness.  Three Arabs were murdered between the 19th and the 30th of the month in Jerusalem, Jaffa and Haifa, and between the 23rd and the 30th there were four night attacks by small parties of armed Arabs on road transport, one raid on a Public Works Department camp, and one armed burglary of an Arab house in the Jerusalem district.

During the first three weeks of August the campaign of lawlessness was intensified, seven Arabs (including a police constable, a police tracker and the Mukhtar of Bir Zeit) being murdered and seven wounded (including a police constable and a police clerk).  There was also an increase in isolated attacks on Arab property and in shooting on Jewish settlements, and there was one serious case of theft of livestock from a Jewish settlement near Tiberias.

17. During the four weeks from the 29th August to the 26th September on which date Mr. L. Y. Andrews, O.B.E., the acting District Commissioner, Galilee District, and British Police Constable McEwen were murdered at Nazareth, there occurred a further succession of murderous attacks in the four administrative districts of the country.

In Jaffa there were two bomb-throwing incidents in which two Arabs and three Jews (one a woman) were wounded, and in Tel Aviv an Arab was shot and wounded.

In the Jerusalem district four attacks were made on omnibuses (three belonging to Arab and one to Jewish companies) in which one Arab woman was killed, another was wounded and one Jew was killed.  There was also one unsuccessful bomb-throwing incident and four cases of murder by shooting, three Arabs being killed and one Jew.

In the Haifa rural area, at Karkur and near Hedera, two Jews and five Arabs were murdered between the 30th August and the 1st September.  On the 4th and the 12th September a notable of Haifa and a notable of Jenin, respectively, were murdered by terrorists.  Two Arabs were shot and killed on the 31st August and the 19th September in and near Haifa.  On the 8th September Arab bandits held up a number of cars between Haifa and Nazareth.  All the passengers were robbed and two Jews travelling in one car were removed from the scene of the hold-up.  One was shot dead and the other wounded.  

In the Galilee District two Arabs were wounded and one Jew killed and another wounded.  Late on the afternoon of Sunday the 26th September Mr. L. Y. Andrews, O.B.E., the acting District Commissioner, Galilee District, and his police escort, British Constable McEwen, were shot dead by unknown assassins in the narrow roadway leading to the Anglican Church in Nazareth where they were about to attend the Evening Service.  The Assistant District Commissioner who was with Mr. Andrews was also shot at but escaped injury.

18. Reference is made in the following section of this Report (Policy) to the action taken by the Palestine Government on the 1st October as a result of the persistence of the terrorist campaign of murder and intimidation which has been described in the preceding paragraphs of this section.          

19. From the 26th September to the 13th October there was a comparative lull, but on the 14th October there was a sudden revival of incidents of murder and violence and an increase of sabotage and attempted sabotage.  This state of insecurity persisted until the end of the year in the Jerusalem, Galilee and Haifa and Samaria Districts.

In the Southern District during the second fortnight of October an armed Arab band raided Lydda Airport burning down the temporary buildings housing the Customs and Passport offices and the wireless installations; and another armed party made an unsuccessful attack on a crowded passenger train on the Lydda-Haifa line near Ras el Ain.               

Two attempts were made by bombing to damage the railway track near Gaza, and a Jewish boy was shot and killed in Rehovot.  During the remainder of the year, however, the Southern District was quiet.            

In the Jerusalem district between the 14th and the 31st October, three Arabs were killed and four were wounded.  The Jewish casualties during the same period of three killed and six-teen wounded included the murder of Mr. Avinoam Yellin, M.B.E., of the Department of Education, who was shot near his office on the 21st October.  He died two days later.  An Armenian and an Egyptian were shot and killed in the neighbourhood of the Jaffa Road; and during an attack by an armed Arab band on the Hebron Road in the early morning of the 15th October, two British police constables were killed.  As a result of these incidents curfew was imposed on the Jerusalem Municipal area for a total period of eight days between the 15th and the 31st of the month.               

The incidents which produced these casualties in the Jerusalem district included the bombing of two Jewish buses and an armed Arab attack on a potash convoy from the Dead Sea; while on the 18th October a large Arab gang raided a police post south of Hebron and stole five rifles and a quantity of ammunition.   

During the same period in the Haifa and Samaria and the Galilee and Acre Districts one Arab was killed and another wounded, two Jews were wounded and the `Iraq Petroleum Company's pipe-line was three times damaged at the eastern end of the valley of Esdraelon.  Extensive damage was done to the Balfour Forest near Nazareth by arson.      

20. During November there was an outbreak of murderous attacks in and near Jerusalem.  On the 5th November two British soldiers were shot and killed in the Valley of Hinnom below the Walls of the Old City.  On the 9th five Jews, including a Jewish supernumerary policeman, while proceeding to their work outside their settlement of Kiryat Anavim 10 kilometres west of Jerusalem near the Jaffa road were murdered by a party of armed Arabs.  On the 10th in and near the Old City one Arab was killed and one wounded and one Jew was wounded.  On the 11th two Arabs were killed and two wounded when a bomb was thrown among them near the General Post Office.  And on the 14th, when this outbreak of terrorism reached its peak, four Arabs were shot dead and another wounded; three Arab passengers, including two women, were killed when an Arab bus was shot at as it was passing through a Jewish quarter (two Jewish women bystanders were wounded); and in a stone-throwing fracas in another Jewish quarter two Arabs and four Jews were injured.  One of the Jews subsequently died. During the month of November curfew was imposed on the Jerusalem Municipal area for a total of 13 days.                       

During the same period in the Galilee and the Haifa and Samaria Districts a British constable was shot and killed when the car in which he was conveying a wounded Jew to hospital was shot at; and an Arab was shot dead in Acre and a Jew murdered near Beisan. An Arab Police sergeant and a constable were also murdered east of Acre when their patrol of three was captured by an armed gang, the third man making good his escape.

About the middle of the month the military forces together with the Police and the Trans-Jordan Frontier Force undertook an extensive operation near the Syrian frontier as a result of which a large gang was located and dispersed with casualties. Six days later, on the 22nd, as a result of another enterprise in which the military forces and the police successfully co-operated, the notorious gang-leader Sheikh Farhan Es Saadi was captured in a village near Jenin.  He was condemned to death by the Military Court in Haifa on the 24th and was executed on the 27th.                   

21. Throughout December sporadic acts of violence and murder persisted mainly in the Haifa and Galilee Districts and in Jerusalem and its suburbs.  Altogether eight Arabs were killed (including an Arab Police Inspector and an Arab Prison warder) in Haifa and two were wounded, while six Jews were killed and 26 wounded, of whom 12 were injured in one incident –an ambush of a Jewish bus near Haifa on the 13th December. In the case of the Arab casualties at least three were murdered with the apparent motive of intimidating others.  Unsuccessful attempts were also made on the lives of the Mayor of Nablus and the Mayor of Tulkarm.  There was a series of attacks on Jewish transport on the Jerusalem-Jaffa road in which one Jewish passenger lost his life; and, particularly on the Hebron-Beersheba road and on the Tiberias-Nazareth road, there was a recrudescense of the sabotage of telephone wires. Near Beisan the `Iraq Petroleum Company's pipe-line was again punctured.

During the second half of December six military operations in Galilee and Samaria resulted in the infliction of a number of casualties on armed Arab bands which during the first fortnight of the month had been active in those areas.  These encounters took place north of Tulkarm, east of Acre, north of Nazareth and west of Tiberias.  They culminated on Christmas Day in the pursuit of a large armed band which, after a pitched battle, was finally completely dispersed with heavy casualties north-west of the town of Tiberias.  The Military Forces, the Police and the Trans-Jordan Frontier Force participated in these operations.  During this encounter a British officer and a British soldier were killed and two soldiers were wounded.              

22. During the year there were numerous long-range encounters between the Police and armed gangs.  There were also a few close encounters.  Of these the following were outstanding:–

(a) On the night of the 4th January, 1937, near Nablus, a police patrol car encountered an armed gang in the process of robbing the passengers of a number of cars on the highway.  The police opened fire on the gang killing one of them.  The remainder fled, escaping in the darkness.

(b) At about 10 p.m. on 22nd January, 1937, on the Nablus-Jenin road a police patrol car was held up by six or seven armed men.  The police opened fire, killing one of the band.  The remainder fled, making good their escape in the darkness.

c) In March, 1937, a strong armed band attacked Jewish workers in the fields near Mesha Colony, Tiberias.  Whilst the firing was still in progress, a party of British police with a Lewis gun arrived at the scene and drove off the attackers, killing one and wounding two others.

23. The police took punitive action throughout the year against harbourers of terrorists.  This action, in the main, took the form of collective fines and the establishment of specially enlisted supernumerary policemen in the localities concerned, the cost of these additional policemen being borne by the inhabitants of the area.  In addition, a number of houses belonging to gang-leaders, etc., were destroyed.     

24. The following is a statistical statement of the number of cases of terrorist activities during the year.

25. The total casualties during the year 1937 resulting from terrorist and gang activities were:–

26. On the 18th March the Palestine (Defence) Order in Council, 1937, was promulgated by His Majesty King George VI in Council.  It embodied certain amendments of the Palestine (Defence) Orders in Council, 1931 and 1936, which it superseded.

Reference is made in the following section of this Report (Policy) to the powers taken by Government under Defence Regulations in connection with–        

(a) The deportation of members of the Arab Higher Committee, the dissolution of the Committee itself and the removal of Haj Amin Eff. el Husseini from office as    President of the Supreme Moslem Council and Chairman of the General Committee of the Wakfs (paragraph 50).

(b) The formation of the Awkaf Commission (paragraph 52).

(c) The setting up of Military Courts (paragraph 54).

In addition, five further Regulations were made under the Palestine (Defence) Order in Council, 1937, relating to public security, namely:–

(i) On the 30th March District Commissioners were empowered to billet, at the expense of the local population, additional police in areas where the inhabitants had failed to render all the assistance in their power to the police or other authority for the purpose of suppressing disturbances.

(ii) On the 26th July District Superintendents of Police were empowered to require that all persons in Palestine desiring to hold a meeting or procession must previously obtain a police licence for this purpose.

(iii) On the 30th September, the High Commissioner took power to direct the detention within His Majesty's possessions of persons living in Palestine in respect of whom orders of deportation from Palestine had been made.

(iv) On the 14th October, the High Commissioner took power to require any person who was out of Palestine to remain so for such time as the order to that effect remained in force.

(v) On the 11th November Regulations were made, whereby Military Courts were set up to deal with certain offences against public order, and persons convicted by these Courts of carrying firearms, ammunition or bombs, became liable to the death sentence, while the provisions imposing the death penalty for discharging firearms, throwing bombs, etc., were amplified.  An extended penalty (i.e., imprisonment for life) was provided for conviction on a charge of being in possession of (as distinct from carrying) any of the above-mentioned weapons.

27. During the year money rewards totalling £P.26,200 were offered by the Police to any person giving information leading to the arrest of those guilty of murder and attempted murder. No rewards have been claimed.

28. In order to safeguard essential communications, to implement other police dispositions and to ensure adequate protection for Jewish settlements, supernumerary police were enrolled, trained and allocated during the year as follows:–

Arabs.     Jews.

(1) for protection of Jewish settlements   —   978 (active)

3,881 (reserve)

(2) for other police dispositions    …  195 15

 

    NOTES:–

(a) When enrolled, supernumeraries were trained on the following system:–

   (1) A number of selected recruits were given instructional courses particularly in weapon training under military instructors.  On the completion of these courses, the supernumeraries so trained were given the rank of lance-corporals and posted to the settlements.

   (2) In the settlements, they in their turn acted as instructors of the supernumerary establishment in each settlement, this training being supplemented by additional instruction at frequent intervals by the Police under district arrangements.

   (3) The supernumeraries were armed with rifles.  In each settlement armoury there were also Greener guns.

 

(b) On various occasions a number of the Jewish reserve supernumerary police constables were called up.

(c) In addition a special Jewish force of Supernumerary Police was trained for the protection of the Palestine Railways, to be commanded by British officers assisted by British and Palestinian Inspectors from the regular Police Force.  During the year there was no occasion to mobilize this force.               

Punitive police posts, to be paid for by the inhabitants, were established in towns, villages and areas where undetected acts of violence, lawlessness and sabotage had occurred as follows:–

  

29. 903 persons were detained under Regulations made under the Palestine Defence Order in Council, and the Prevention of Crime Ordinance, as follows:–

At the end of the year the numbers detained were:–

30. Reference is made in Chapter XI of this Report (Military Clauses:  paragraph 1) to exceptional Police developments during the year including–

(a) the establishment of reserve Police forces (in-lying picquets) at Jerusalem, Jaffa and Haifa;

(b)  the establishment of a new Police post in the Jerusalem suburb of Rehavia;

(c) the installation of eleven additional police wireless stations and the equipment of police motor vehicles with wireless telephony receiving sets, while arrangements were made for eighteen further vehicles to be similarly equipped; and

(d) the purchase of two more South African police dogs.  

31. During the year additional British officers joined the District staffs and were posted as Assistant District Commissioners for the Haifa Sub-District, and the Safad and Tulkarm Sub-Districts.

32. In April the construction of a new road following the alignment of the Palestine-Syrian border between Bassa on the west and Metulla on the east was started.  It was opened to traffic at the end of July.  This road is throughout garrisoned by and patrolled from inter-communicating police posts so located as to prevent the smuggling of arms into Palestine and the entry across the border of armed bandits and illegal immigrants.

33. On the 29th September the new direct road connecting Jaffa and Tel Aviv with Haifa along the coastal plain was completed and opened to traffic.

34. In order to ensure safer conditions for Jewish worshippers, a new route was opened in November through the Old City of Jerusalem to the Wailing Wall.  It avoids the mainly non-Jewish quarters which had previously to be traversed.

35. In the Introductory Chapter (paragraph 68) of the Annual Report for 1936 the arrival in September and October, 1936, of additional military forces from Great Britain under the command of Lieutenant-General Sir John Dill was reported.  In November, 1936, the gradual reduction of the garrison began, and in March, 1937, the forces of the Crown in Palestine had been reduced to a strength of two Infantry brigades and ancillary units and, for Palestine and Trans-Jordan, to a strength of one Squadron and one Flight of aeroplanes.  This was the strength of the garrison on 31st December, 1937.

36. Throughout the year there was close cooperation between Police on the one hand and the British Military and Air Forces in Palestine on the other.  This cooperation by the Military and Air Forces consisted in reinforcing police engaged upon civil duties in connection with the protection of the roads, the seizure of arms, the arrest of individual law-breakers, and the searching of villages.  In addition, troops and aircraft carried out military operations against armed Arab bands.

During the first nine months of the year the Military and Air Forces engaged armed Arab bands on one occasion only; but in the remaining three months there were nine encounters as follows:–

The number of known casualties inflicted upon the bands was 48 and in addition it is estimated that a further 100 were killed and wounded.

37. On the 18th November the High Commissioner, acting under powers conferred by the Defence Order in Council, established the Military Courts, to which reference is made in paragraphs 54 and 55 of the following section of this report, "Policy", one in Jerusalem and the other in Haifa.

Up to the end of the year the Military Courts had tried 38 persons, all of them Arab.  The following is a statement of the sentences confirmed by the General Officer Commanding the British Forces in Palestine and Trans-Jordan:–

38. During the year, the control of the Press continued to be exerted under the Press Ordinance and the Defence Regulations made under the Palestine (Defence) Order in Council.

 

39. After the publication of the Report of the Palestine Royal Commission, the Government gave the fullest consideration to the Commission's recommendation that a Press Ordinance should be adopted providing for a cash deposit which could be confiscated; for penalties of imprisonment as well as a fine; and, in the case of a repetition of the offence, for forfeiture of the Press and its material.  Sufficient information was collected by Government to render possible the enactment at short notice of a new Ordinance on the general lines of the Commission's recommendations, should an occasion arise calling for a closer control of the Press than can be achieved under the present Ordinance and the Defence Regulations; but it was considered that no useful purpose would be served at present by enacting the new Ordinance and putting it into force.

40. During the year, local newspapers, daily and weekly, were penalized as follows:–

I. Arabic Press (Dailies).–(a) 1st January to 8th July, 1937 (i.e. the date of the publication of the Report of the Palestine Royal Commission).            

Official warnings were given once to "Al Iqdam" and twice to "Hayarden."

41. Newspapers published in neighbouring countries were excluded from Palestine under section 20 (1) of the Press Ordinance as follows:–

Syrian newspapers on 18 occasions.

Lebanese    "      "  8     "

Egyptian    "      "  8     "

'Iraqi      "      "  2     "

42. The High Commissioner made use of the powers conferred by Regulation 11 under the Palestine (Defence) Order in Council, 1931, as follows:–(

a) A one-day censorship of outgoing foreign Press telegrams was enforced from the 8th to the 9th September.

(b) A scrutiny of all newspapers entering Palestine from Egypt, the Lebanon, Syria and `Iraq was imposed from the 7th October up to midnight the 10th-11th November, 1937.

(c) Certain pamphlets, books and manifestos were prohibited.

(d) On the 25th September Press telegrams were detained for four hours in Jerusalem lest the news of Mr. Andrews' death should reach his widow through Press or broadcast channels before she received the official intimation.

43. During the session of the Permanent Mandates Commission at Geneva in August, 1937, Baron Van Asbeck inquired from the British Accredited Representative as to the number of cases in which legal action had been taken by Government against speakers or journalists using violent language in their speeches or articles during the period preceding the disturbances of 1936.

No such actions were taken either against speakers or journalists.  The provisions of the Press Ordinance were used against newspapers publishing articles written in violent language.

…

POPULATION OF PALESTINE (EXCLUDING MEMBERS OF

HIS MAJESTY'S FORCES) AT THE CENSUS OF 1922,

AND AS ESTIMATED AT 30TH JUNE IN EACH OF

THE YEARS 1923-37, BY RELIGIONS.

 

  5. There has been unrecorded illegal immigration both of Jews and of Arabs in the period since the census of 1931, but no estimate of its volume will be possible until the next census is taken.

6. The estimated total population has increased in the 15 years from 1922 to the middle of 1937, by 631,272 persons. The increase is due to immigration and to the excess of births over deaths, the allocation of the total increases between these two factors being estimated to be as follows:–

…

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