Mr. TOTAH. In these important offices, very few Arabs are appointed; as a matter of fact, I know of none.

Mr. COOPER. But this gentleman mentioned two or three who were mayors of cities.

Mr. ToтAH. Those are heads of municipalities. That is not what you call an office; it is not exactly a Government office.

Mr. COOPER. The head of a city, of any city of any size fills rather an important office, does he not?

Mr. TоTAH. He is not exactly the head of a city.

Mr. LIPSKY. The mayor of the city.

Mr. TоTAH. It is not exactly the mayor of a city; it is very different from the mayor of a city in this country. Although 93 per cent of the people are native Palestinians, so far as the speaking of the Arabic language in Palestine is concerned, the' men in the administration have introduced and imposed upon an overwhelming majority of the people a language that is not spoken by them, and that is the Hebrew language.

Mr. COOPER. Do you mean to say they have compelled the Arabs to speak Hebrew?

Mr. TOTAH. They did not compel them in that sense, but they have incorporated the Hebrew language as one of the official languages, although 93 per cent of the people are non-Jewish.

Mr. COOPER. Let me call your attention to the fact that the American Government in the Philippines provides that the decisions of the courts there shall be in English and Spanish, and the same thing is true in Porto Rico. The great majority of the population in Porto Rico speak Spanish, but they do not compel those people who are Spaniards to speak the English language or write it. Mr. TOTAH. I do not know about that, but I am telling you these facts, how there is partiality and a leaning toward the Jews by the present administration in Palestine. That is the only reason I am giving you these facts. I do not doubt your word about the Philippines and Porto Rico.

Mr. SABATH. The English language has also been forced on the Arabs? Mr. TоTAH. I will not say it is forced, because the present Government there is English, and naturally uses the English language.

Mr. SABATH. It was not used there before, was it? The English language was not recognized before.

Mr. TOTAH. The introduction of the English language into the Philippines is not like the introduction of the Hebrew language in Palestine. To-day the Government there is British. What is the Hebrew language doing in there?

Mr. SABATH. Do you not think the people are entitled to use their own language?

Mr. TOTAH. Yes; their language is Arabic. They are entitled to use Arabic, and 93 per cent of the population speak Arabic.

Mr. SABATH. They are not forcing the Arabs to use the Hebrew language. Mr. TOTAH. They are adopting it as an official language.

Mr. SABATH. Is there any harm done when the Hebrew language is also permitted to be used?

Mr. TOTAH. I think my previous answer covers that. It only shows the trend of interference on the part of the administration in Palestine at the present time. Contracts have been invariably given to Zionists, although they were not the lowest bidders.

Mr. COOPER. Can you name any contracts?

Mr. TоTAH. The father of the gentleman who was here yesterday put in a lower b'd than one of the Zionists for supplying wood; that is, his father and his brother put in a lower bid, but they were not given the contract.

Mr. COOPER. It does not always follow that the lowest bidder is the best bidder, and we always reserve the right in this country to reject any one of the bids, or reject any one or all of them. Frequently people make the lowest bids but when you look into their responsibility for carrying out the terms of the bid and find they are not able to do it, the contract is awarded to the next highest bidder. So the fact that a man has made a lower bid than any one else and had his bid rejected does not show, necessarily, that any injustice was done, but simply that justice was done the taxpayers.

Mr. TOTAH. If it is continued it shows a leaning toward the Zionists to the detriment of the inhabitants who are in the majority.

I want to read and have it go on record

Mr. SABATH (interposing). In regard to this matter you complained about, was not that in the section of Palestine that is populated by the Jewish people?

Mr. TOTAH. In reference to the contracts?

Mr. SABATH. Yes.

Mr. TOTAH. The contracts are given by the central government in Jerusalem. Mr. SARATH. For what?

Mr. TоTAH. For public works.

Mr. SABATH. Where are the public works?

Mr. TOTAH. Throughout the country; contracts for doing work of a public nature. In this instance it was to supply wood for public use.

Mr. SABATH. All over the entire country?

Mr. TотAH. Yes. I can not give you the exact facts or tell you just where they had to get it, or where they had to deliver it.

Mr. LIPSKY. I submit, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, that the gentleman is taking my time, and what he is saying has no bearing upon anything which is now before the committee.

Mr. TOTAH. Here is a report from the Jewish Chronicle of March 24, 1922, in regard to the dismissal of the British Palestine officials. Mr. SABATH. What is it about ?

DISMISSAL OF BRITISH PALESTINE OFFICIALS-ALLEGED JEWISH PREFERENCE.

The Cairo correspondent of the Morning Post telegraped last Friday: The Palestine papers announce the names of several of the most prominent British officials in the Palestine administration who are to be discharged for reasons of economy. The list includes several governors of districts. The papers comment on the fact that with one exception all the names are those of officials whose sympathies are with the Arabs. They also comment on the fact that the list does not contain one Jew, though Mr. Bentwich, whose post as legal secretary has been suppressed, has been given another appointment.

Mr. TOTAH. The substance of it is that some of these officials are to be discharged for reasons of economy.

Mr. SABATH. Are to be discharged for reasons of economy?

Mr. TOTAH. Yes, sir.

Mr. SABATH. That is proper, is it not.

Mr. TOTAH. There is a list given of several government officials and those are the names of Arabs.

If this committee and the American Congress is going to endorse the Balfour promise and the mandate, they are going to help bloodshed. I want to give to you a clipping from the Associated Press, from Jerusalem, dated April 18. Mr. SABATH. You are against the British rule, are you?

Mr. TоTAH. No, I am not.

Mr. SABATH. You are against the British Government; you are objecting to anything the British Government is doing there?

Mr. TOTAH. No, I am not. I beg your pardon. I have a lot of Jewish classmates and friends. I am only talking for the natives' own rights.

Mr. SABATH. What do you mean by your own rights? You are an American, are you not?

Mr. TOTAH. Yes, sir. This is the first impartial inquiry that has been afforded the native Palestinians; and, on behalf of the Palestine National League, I want to thank the American Government and the American Congress for affording us this first important privilege. The principles of progress

Mr. COOPER (interposing). Can we not get through with this sometime? Mr. TOTAH. I will finish in a moment. The principles of progress are taking the place of the old precedents, and the spirit of the 14 points of President Wilson is now being contradicted by the Balfour promise and by the Fish and Lodge resolutions-if they are carried. I would like to put into the record what writers in general say about Zionism. I refer to important writers in this country, such as Herbert Adams Gibbons and Professor Clay, of Yale University. Mr. COOPER. Why did you not put those in when you presented your case, so that somebody might have had an opportunity to see them?

Mr. TоTAH. They will be read.

(The matter referred to is as follows:)

VATICAN SEEKS CHANGE IN PALESTINE MANDATE-DISSATISFIED WITH PLANS FOR CONTROL OF HOLY PLACES, ZIONIST LEADER SAYS.

ROME, April 8.-The Vatican is not satisfied with clause 14 of the Palestine mandate concerning control of the holy places, and will probably use its in

fluence to change it when the mandate comes before the meeting of the League of Nations for ratification, Dr. Chaim Weizmann, of London, president of the Zionist organization of the world, told your correspondent after an interview with Cardinal Gasparri, the papal secretary of state.

The clause in question puts in charge of these sites an interreligious commission, including representatives of the Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox Greeks, Armenians, Georgians, Jews, and Mohammedans. Cardinal Gasparri thinks the commission, so composed, will be unable to do anything, because the interests represented are so conflicting, and believes Catholics should have the larger representation.

Another difficulty facing the ratification of the Palestine mandate given England, Doctor Weizmann says, is the opposition of the American Government, due to the Mosul oil question, as the Mesopotamian and Palestine mandates have been linked together. The British, he declares, are willing to have the two considered separately, and if Washington agrees to this, as the Zionists are urging the State Department to do, the Palestine mandate probably will be approved.

The uncertainty concerning the mandate he considers one of the chief sources of trouble for the Zionists in Palestine. In the last two years, he said, 100,000 Jews, chiefly from Poland and Russia, had settled in Palestine and were arriving at the rate of 1,000 per month.

Mr. LIPSKY. Mr. Chairman, some statements have been made by the previous witness that are entirely new and which should have been introduced when the witnesses made their first statements. I would like to point out that the remarks of the last witness indicate a state of mind which it is very important for the committee to take into consideration, especially with regard to the charge that was made here of a desire to oppress the Arabs in Palestine, and the manner in which the gentleman who has just spoken expresses his friendship for the Jewish people. We did not mention what the Jewish people have contributed toward the success of the Allies. We thought that was not the point which was under consideration here.

But there went out from the United States over 4,000 young Jews who were not subject to the draft law to serve in Allenby's army to fight against the Turks. There went out in Palestine itself over three or four thousand young Palestinians living in territory that belonged to the Turks, who managed to get in touch with Allenby's army and served in the Jewish legion which fought in Palestine. Those men formed a legion that went with the allied forces to Gallipoli, and in that Jewish legion, not subject to draft in any country, there were several thousands who lost their lives. We have in this country at the present time Colonel Patterson, an English officer, who was responsible for the organization of the Jewish forces which went to Gallipoli, and Mr. Jabotinsky was one of the leading factors in the organization of the Jewish legion, which was made up of Jewish young men not subject to the draft from the United States, England, and Palestine.

I also point out from the attention of the members of the committee the method of inciting a riot by constantly reiterating the possibility of riots.

The Arab press has been carrying on for the last three or four months a propaganda intended to warn the Jewish people that riots were coming. Now, I am not speaking of the Arab people in general, or the peasants working in the fields, but of the agitators in the cities, members of nationalist clubs in the cities, members of Arab nationalist clubs. They are the ones, these members of the Arab nationalist clubs, who are responsible for carrying on this propaganda, which keeps on repeating again and again that riots are coming. The action which has been taken by the British Government and by the Allies is intended to protect Jewish interests. The Balfour declaration prevents riots; the influx of new Jewish immigration prevents riots. It is the assumption that every act on the part of the Jewish people is inherently wrong, and therefore produces riots. The idea is put forth that every act of the Jewish people to maintain business or establish themselves or every act of the Jewish people in trying to get a foothold tends toward riots, and is used as an argument in favor of riots. It is said that if you do this or that riots will happen. I submit that that is not an indication of friendship, and that any witness who presents this plea or any witness representing any group who develop such ideas of animosity and hatred in his demands ought to have his testimony very carefully scrutinized by the members of this committee.

Mr. SARATH. Especially in view of the statement of the gentleman who tried to point out to us the meaning of the word "equity."

Mr. LIPSKY. Those were good words which he read.

Mr. SABATH. But they do not seem to understand them, do they?

Mr. LIPSKY. It is a fact that in Palestine in the civil administration-in the Palestine government administration-the percentage of Jews is small. I could pick out 50 Arabs; that might give you the impression that all the people there are Arabs. The fact is there are some Jews, a number of them in high official position, because they happen to appoint them, being British subjects and knowing British law. Colonel Bentwich, who is a lawyer of high standing in England and who is one of the Zionists in Palestine, because he happened to be in Palestine was appointed one of the judges. He is a very able lawyer, and there was no Arab who could fill that position. So there are other positions which have been filled by Jews, but the majority of the positions have been filled by Arabs, and a small minority are Jews.

It is true that Jews have been given contracts. But there was public bidding. The Government Register prints a notice to the effect that bids will be taken for doing certain work, and bids are put in, and officials taking these bids are not Jewish. The complaint of the Zionist Organization has been that the military officials in Palestine have been constantly working against the interests of the Balfour declaration. Some of the things read into the record by Professor Reed had to do with the complaints on the part of Doctor Weizmann that the military officials were working against the colonial office in regard to establishing a Jewish national home. The military officials have been charged with negligence in not taking precautions to prevent riots, because it was the general impression that the military officials were not in sympathy with the British policy with regard to the establishment of a national home in Palestine. Those are incidents of this arrangement. They are instances in connection with the carrying out of a very difficult undertaking.

We admit that the situation presented by the Jewish people, homeless and scattered, desiring to establish a national home, presents a very unique situation. It is a proposition unparalleled in history, and it is unparalleled in history that for so many generations our people should be holding this longing in their hearts without being able to satisfy it. Now, at this moment, there comes an opportunity to satisfy it at the expense of no people, at the expense of no individual rights, and at the expense of nobody's property.

In issuing the Balfour declaration care had to be exercised in framing it so as not to offend Jews who might feel that this was an infringement of their position in the countries where they were living. They had to be very careful not to affect religious or racial communities in Palestine; they had to be very careful to make a formula to avoid those things, and that is why a great deal of time was spent in putting together the words of the Balfour declaration.

I am surprised that Professor Reed should have put into the record of this committee unfair, unwarranted references to an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and that he should have tried to make it appear as if the act of the Associate Justice in assisting in the formulation of the Balfour declaration was something not worthy of the position he occupied. The fact that the Associate Justice referred to considered it as a moral obligation to help in doing a thing which was very difficult, that involved essential justice, and to do it in the right way, should not be taken as a matter which deserves the insinuations of Professor Reed, but should be taken as a matter of the greatest praise, that he should have served his people, put himself out so that this thing should be done justly and fairly.

I say that is why the Balfour declaration was passed along to the representative of the Arab people, not, of course, to the Palestinian Arabs, but to the representatives, as far as they could find the representatives, of the Arab people this Balfour declaration was shown, and you will see from the letter of Prince Feisel that he knew about it and approved it, that it was a very moderate statement. He admired the Zionists for presenting their claim in so moderate a form. Then after the allied conference at San Remo, it became necessary for the British Government to formulate the terms of the contract it would make with the Jewish people, with the population of Palestine, and with the League of Nations, the terms of the agreement under which it became the mandatory power for Palestine, and naturally there have been negotiations and conferences.

The Zionist organization is not a secret organization. We conduct propaganda that is open; we have a weekly newspaper that has a wide circulation, and everybody can see that newspaper. Professor Reed gets it every week.

106932-22- -10

Our leaders speak openly. They have nothing to conceal. Doctor Weizmann conducts the negotiations with the Governments and comes back and tries to explain them to his people. That he has done in speeches. Sometimes the explanation does not fit the present situation because the situation has changed. You have to read everything that Doctor Weizmann or others have said with regard to the mandate and the declaration, and have to judge those things at the time they were said and the conditions under which they were delivered. Professor Reed's intimations that these negotiations and the changes in the text involved something underhand and not worthy-all of these insinuations are not worthy of the record of this committee.

The Palestine mandate has been revised to my knowledge five or six times. Objections were raised by the British Government, the Zionist organization, and other interests outside of the British Government which are concerned in the manner in which Palestine shall be governed, and these objections have been met, have been accepted, new texts have been issued and again considered, and the text read by Professor Reed is one of the texts which has already been revised, as you will see from the statement of Mr. Churchill, and the conditions mentioned in the mandate have been altered and probably will be altered again, and even when the League of Nations will adopt this mandate it will be revised, because there is no intention on the part of the British Government to do anything but justice in Palestine, with due regard to the promise she made to the Jewish people.

The promise made to the Jewish people in the minds of many Englishmen is the promise based upon prophecy, and based upon belief in the truth of the Bible. There are thousands of Englishmen who have a very strong belief in the destiny of the British people to cooperate in the redemption of Israel.

The Jewish people who live in Palestine have no ill feeling toward the Arabs. You can see that from the fact that in the places where the Arabs are employed they are part of the life of the Jewish people wherever they aid in making conditions so that the Jewish people can live in friendship and neighborliness. Mr. SMITH. That is prophecy made in the Bible, is it not?

Mr. LIPSKY. We have a very large sect in the United States, the Second Day Adventists, the Christadelphians, the Bible Students. The Christians in the United States have made much more of the prophecies than the Jews.

Mr. SMITH. That is what you refer to?

Mr. LIPSKY. Yes; the church of the Seventh Day Adventists is based on the validity of prophecies. There is a very large organization of the Brotherhood of Bible Students, all of whom believe in the return to Palestine and in assisting the Jews in that, because they think that by the return of the Jews the prophecy is actually fulfilled.

Reference was made to a cablegram which was received from Rome in reference to the opinion of the Pope with regard to Zionism.

Mr. SABATH. You refer to the article that the preceding witness desired to put into the record.

Mr. LIPSKY. Have you read the article?

Mr. SABATH. Do you wish to read it?

Mr. LIPSKY. I think I have seen it. We had from the late Pope a very favorable statement with regard to the Balfour—

Mr. COOPER (interposing). You mean the Pope who recently died?

Mr. LIPSKY. Yes, the Pope who recently died. Naturally the Vatican is intensely interested in the protection of the holy places. In the mandate which has been formulated and in the resolution of Senator Lodge presented in the Senate, there is a special provision for the protection of the holy places. In the mandate there is a provision for the appointment of a committee which shall be in charge of all the holy places, to be composed of Christians, Moslems, and Jews. The Jewish people are intensely interested in the protection of the holy places.

Mr. COOPER. If you are going to make it a mere matter of pure mercenary operation. to get it down to the most vulgar possible aspect in reference to the preservation of those holy places, the entire, perfect protection of them is the only thing that will continue to attract the Christian tourists, and more and more millions will go there. Taking it from that viewpoint alone, the Jews and the Arabs and the Christians are intensely interested in the preservation of those places.

Mr. LIPSKY. That is what Sir Herbert Samuel refers to in his report about the tourists. They are already making preparations in connection with the segregation of certain holy places and the control of them, naturally having due regard for the sensibilities of all people interested in those historical places.