Summary
Sir Michael McDonnell, formerly Chief Justice, Supreme Court of Palestine, adviser to the Arab representatives on the 1939 committee on the McMahon–Hussein correspondence, whose statement on the legal points of the Lord Chancellor’s argument is Annex C of the committee’s report (Report of a Committee set up to consider certain correspondence between Sir Henry McMahon and the Sharif of Mecca, lines 153-180).
Details
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He is listed as adviser to the Arab side of the committee, the United Kingdom side’s adviser being Mr. J. Heyworth-Dunne (lines 165-180).
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His statement, handed in by the Arab representatives at the third meeting, is Annex C, on “certain legal points arising out of the Lord Chancellor’s statement at the Second Meeting of the Committee on February 24th”; the Report dates the statement itself to 27 February 1939 in its summary of the Arab answers (lines 117-139, 251-270).
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As summarised in the Report, his points used by the Arab representatives are: that what Henry McMahon said he intended is of no consequence, because McMahon was His Majesty’s Government’s instrument, not the giver of the pledge, and that what matters is what McMahon actually said; and that the district phrase in the 24 October 1915 letter did not exclude Palestine, a point his statement makes in still greater detail than Annex A (lines 251-270).
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His statement itself (Annex C) is read in part 2 of the source.
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In Annex C (lines 493-606) he argues that what McMahon and Clayton said they intended is “a matter of no consequence whatever” — the offer was the Government’s, McMahon a “conduit pipe” — and that on the ordinary grammatical sense of the district phrase Palestine was not excluded: McMahon’s sole stated reason, that the reserved portions “cannot be said to be purely Arab”, fits Latakia, Tripoli and the Lebanon, while Palestine was at least 95 per cent. Arab; exclusion through the French-interests reference “by a side wind” “is an argument that will not hold water”.
Related pages
Report of a Committee set up to consider certain correspondence between Sir Henry McMahon and the Sharif of Mecca, McMahon–Hussein correspondence, George Antonius, Lord Maugham