HL Deb 04 May 1922 vol 50 cc278-82

LORD RAGLAN had given Notice to ask His Majesty's Government for information on the following points connected with the proposed Palestine Constitution—

  1. 1. Whether the Palestine Civil Service, in so far as it is recruited in this country, will form part of the general Colonial Civil Service.
  2. 2. Whether English Jews holding official positions in Palestine will be considered as Palestinians, and if so 279 whether Arabs will be equally eligible for such positions.
  3. 3. How many elected members of the Legislative Council are allotted to the Moslems, Christians, and Jews; and, approximately, how many voters each such member will represent.
  4. 4. Whether the electoral divisions will be denominations or areas, and if the latter, whether the residential qualification for the franchise will be based on residence in Palestine as a whole or in such areas.
  5. 5. Whether the Turkish system of elected District Councils will be revived; and to move for Papers.

The noble Lord said: My Lords, in asking the Questions standing in my name I should like to say, with regard to the first, that at the present moment British officers employed in Palestine are in a very unsatisfactory position. They are under very short contracts, and these contracts have in many cases been broken. They are under this additional disadvantage, that their chances of promotion may depend upon whether or not they find favour in the eyes of the Zionist Commission. As regards the second Question, there is a tendency among English Jews to claim a preference over other Englishmen employed in Palestine on the ground that they are Palestinians, and over other Palestinians on the ground that they are Englishmen. It is desirable that their status should be defined, and that if they are Englishmen they should have the same chance as other Englishmen, and if they are Palestinians they should have the same chance as other Palestinians. As regards the last three Questions, it is impossible to criticise the proposals of the Government until we know what they are, and I therefore beg formally to move for Papers.

THE DUKE OF SUTHERLAND

My Lords; the answer to the first Question of the noble Lord is that members of the Palestine Civil Service who are recruited from England will be on the same footing as members of the Civil Services of Colonies and Protectorates and will be subject to the same general rules. They will be eligible for transfer to posts in the Colonies, and officers in the Colonies are eligible for transfer to Palestine. A Colony is responsible for its own Service, and some of these Services are closed, or practically so. Transfers in these cases would as a rule only take place in the more responsible posts that are not normally filled by promotion within the Service of the Colony concerned.

As regards the second Question, English Jews who wish to become Palestinians, whether they hold official positions or not, may do so, if they fulfil the conditions attached to the acquisition of Palestinian citizenship. These conditions are formulated in a Nationality Law, which cannot, become effective until Palestine is formally severed from the Ottoman Empire by ratification of a Treaty of Peace with Turkey. In any case there is no discrimination in the Palestine Civil Service against Palestinian Arabs who, if they possess the necessary qualifications, may fill vacancies as they occur. At the present time there is a large number of Palestinian Arabs who hold the posts of district inspectors, judges, medical officers of health, inspectors in the Agricultural and Veterinary Services, inspectors in the Education Department and in the Revenue Department.

The third and fourth Questions deal with matters arising out of the electoral system to be set up in Palestine. The system is one of indirect election. For the purpose of primary elections every district is to be divided into voting areas, and the voters within such areas will be entitled to elect a number of secondary electors, to be determined in the following manner. The Governor of the district, in consultation with the President of any municipal or local council in the district, and the head men of the villages will define the voting areas, and will determine the number of secondary electors to be elected in each voting area on the basis that every 200 primary electors shall elect one secondary elector. Voters will be registered in the villages or quarters in which they reside.

The secondary electors are to be formed into twelve electoral colleges, according to the religious community to which they belong; that is to say, that there will be separate electoral colleges for Moslems, Christians and Jews. The number of colleges to be allotted to each religious community will be determined by the High Commissioner, having regard to the number of secondary electors belonging to the several communities. Each electoral college will elect one member. Thus, it is clear that there will be twelve members, but the exact number of seats on the Legislative Council given to Moslems, Christians and Jews respectively cannot be determined until the secondary electors have been divided up into their own colleges, while the number of the colleges assigned to each community depends in turn on the number of secondary electors in each community. If it be assumed that there are 150,000 primary electors in Palestine, then there would be approximately 800 secondary electors, to be divided into twelve colleges, each electing one member for the Legislative Council.

As regards the fifth Question I am not able to say whether administrative councils will be revived in districts. These councils undoubtedly justified their existence in Palestine when the central authority of government was in Constantinople, but it is not obvious that they will be necessary, at any rate immediately, in the country which is now being administered from its own capital. The Palestine Government will doubtless consider the wisdom of reinstituting these councils when the circumstances are such as to justify consideration.

LORD RAGLAN

I do not quite understand the difficulty of the noble Duke in telling us how many members of each religious body will form the Legislative Council. The population of Palestine is known approximately; therefore, if it is intended that the same number of each religious community shall have the same electoral value there can be no difficulty in giving me the information now.

THE DUKE OF SUTHERLAND

It depends entirely on the manner of voting.

LORD RAGLAN

They must vote by religions. Christians are not going to vote for Moslems, and Moslems are not going to vote for Jews.

THE DUKE OF SUTHERLAND

We must wait and see.

LORD RAGLAN

I can assure the noble Duke that they will not in any case. I understand the residential qualification will be entirely on the district where the voters reside, and not on residence in Palestine as a whole.

THE DUKE OF SUTHERLAND

That is so.

LORD RAGLAN

As regards the administrative councils I cannot see that it makes any difference where the capital of a country is. These councils practically correspond to our parish councils, or, at any rate, to our urban district councils, and, if the noble Duke admits that they were useful bodies under the Turkish Government, I cannot conceive why they will not be equally useful under the present' Government.

THE DUKE OF SUTHERLAND

It is obvious that, where affairs are administered from a capital close at hand, as Jerusalem is, the authorities will be able to keep in much closer touch generally with local affairs than they could when the capital was in Constantinople.

Motion, by leave, withdrawn.