§ Mr. David Adamsasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether the petition submitted by Mr. Isaac David Ketter, a Jerusalem barrister, through the Colonial Office to the Permanent Mandates Commission, on 17th September, 1939, has been considered by the Commission; and whether any reply to the mandatory Power for the petitioner has since been received?
§ Colonel StanleyThe petition was submitted to the Permanent Mandates Commission in January, 1940, but no reply has been received.
§ Mr. Adamsasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether petitions, addressed by the inhabitants of British mandated territories to the Permanent Mandate Commission will, in the present crisis, be forwarded by the mandatory Power to the offices of the League of Nations, now transferred to Canada; and, as the aggrieved inhabitants of such territories may not petition Parliament or its Members postage free, will he ensure the exercise of this normal pro- 323W cedure in petitioning directly the Mandates Commission?
§ Col. StanleyOwing to the war, the Permanent Mandates Commission has not met since December, 1939. It has always been customary for petitions addressed to the Commission from communities or sections of the population of territories in respect of which a mandate is being exercised by His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom to be transmitted to the Secretary-General of the League of Nations as soon as they are received from the officers administering the Governments of the territories in question, and this procedure is still being continued. The second part of the Question accordingly does not arise.