British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Chapter II, Historical Summary 1923. Period III: A period of consolidation and comparative tranquility, Sept. 1923 Volume I - Page 22

CHAPTER II.

therefore nullified by an amending Order-in-Council. An attempt was then made to reconstitute the Advisory Council by nomination of unofficial members on the same representative basis as that of the proposed Legislative Council. The High Commissioner invited eight Moslem and two Christian Arabs to become members; the invitations were accepted, but seven of the acceptances were subsequently withdrawn under pressure from the Arab Executive. The attempt was then abandoned and the Advisory Council remained, until today, a Council of British officials only.

4th October, 1923.

The Secretary of State for the Colonies (then the Duke of Devonshire) next proposed the establishment of an Arab Agency to occupy a position exactly analogous to that accorded to the Jewish Agency under Article 4 of the Mandate*. This offer was explained by the High Commissioner on 11th October to a fully representative gathering of Arab leaders, who unanimously declined to accept it on the grounds that it "would not satisfy the aspirations of the Arab people".

The three attempts of 1923 to associate the Arab community with the administration of Palestine, i.e., the Legislative Council, the enlarged Advisory Council and the Arab Agency, had thus all failed and terminated in a deadlock in constitutional development. It had become obvious that the Arab objection was, not to the way in which the Mandate might be worked, but to the whole policy of the Mandatory and that by no concession, however liberal, were the Arabs prepared to be reconciled to a regime which recognized the implications of the Balfour Declaration.

29th September, 1923.

The Mandate came into force officially.

Period III.
1924-1928. A period of consolidation and comparative tranquility.

These were years of political quiescence and of improved security conditions, the garrison being reduced from three infantry battalions and three cavalry regiments with artillery to a single squadron of R.A.F. and two companies of armored cars by the end of 1926. The British gendarmerie, which bad been formed 760 strong in 1922, was disbanded in Hl26, and the strength of the regular police force reduced. The period was one of consolidation for the Jewish National Home, although the latter part was
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*Cmd. 1989.

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