Summary
T. Reid, C.M.G., a member of the Palestine Partition Commission, who signed its report subject to a Note of Reservations holding Plan C — the least objectionable scheme devisable under the terms of reference — impracticable, as are Plans A and B, for absence of both communities’ consent, absence of equity, absence of security and absence of solvency (Palestine Partition Commission Report, PDF p.2, 265-283).
Details
- Reid is named on the Commission’s title leaf as a member, with Chairman Sir John Woodhead and members Sir Alison Russell and A. P. Waterfield (Palestine Partition Commission Report, PDF p.2).
- His Note (paras. 1-41 in the range read) holds that no plan partitioning Palestine’s Government into three administrations would be practicable without the consent of both Arabs and Jews, neither of which would accept Plans B or C; that partition was asked for by no body in Palestine and would likely be rejected by its people, possibly by a majority approaching 100 per cent counting Arab and Jewish votes together; and that the chief incentive to Arab unrest is fear of Jewish economic and political domination (Palestine Partition Commission Report, PDF p.265-275).
- The Note’s conclusion (paras. 42-64) holds the proposed Arab State not self-supporting and not a state while dependent on annual British subsidies, its minority undertakings unsanctioned; applies the equity test to Plan C, quoting Burke on justice as the great standing policy of civil society; holds partition impracticable for absence of security, the only defensive boundary for Palestine being the present one and Plan C’s additional boundaries exceeding 300 miles; describes Plan C’s seven blocks and their subdivisions as an administrative labyrinth whose immediate object would be only a Jewish State; and holds it impracticable for absence of solvency, setting his balanced average budget for unpartitioned peaceful Palestine (£P.3,750,000 net revenue and expenditure, police at £P.800,000) against the three partitioned administrations’ combined civil deficit of about £P.1,000,000 a year, rejecting the proposed customs union as unacceptable to both peoples, and concluding that Plan C would not and could not be implemented, his conclusions being purely negative with no alternative proposed (Palestine Partition Commission Report, PDF p.276-283).
Related pages
Palestine Partition Commission, Palestine Partition Commission Report, John Woodhead, Alison Russell