Summary
The British commission chaired by Sir John Woodhead appointed in March 1938 to work out a detailed scheme of Partition from the Royal Commission’s outline plan, whose report (Cmd. 5854, October 1938) drew Plan A exactly from that outline, examined and unanimously rejected it, and put forward the majority’s Plan C and, in its final chapter, a suggestion of economic federalism (Palestine Partition Commission Report, PDF p.1-13).
Details
- The Commission’s members were Sir John Woodhead (Chairman), Sir Alison Russell, A. P. Waterfield and T. Reid, with S. E. V. Luke as Secretary; it was appointed by W. G. A. Ormsby Gore in March 1938 under terms of reference published in Cmd. 5634 on 4 January 1938, directing it to recommend boundaries affording a reasonable prospect of self-supporting Arab and Jewish States, including the fewest possible Arabs and Arab enterprises in the Jewish area and vice versa, and enabling the Mandatory’s Article 28 Holy Places responsibilities, and to report on partition’s economic and financial questions (Palestine Partition Commission Report, PDF p.2, 7-8).
- It left London on 21 April 1938, reached Jerusalem on 27 April, toured about 5,000 kilometres (3,000 miles) in Palestine and Trans-Jordan including nine days in Trans-Jordan, held fifty-five sessions in Jerusalem (two public) and nine further private sessions in London, and received no Arab witnesses, the Arab boycott being complete; it left Palestine on 3 August 1938 (Palestine Partition Commission Report, PDF p.8-9, 16).
- Its military advisers’ advice on boundaries was accepted in every case; no strategic line was held to exist west of the River Jordan, so boundaries were judged tactically against a force armed with rifles and machine guns (Palestine Partition Commission Report, PDF p.21).
Related pages
Palestine Partition Commission Report, Peel Commission, John Woodhead, Partition