The Gulf Crisis and New World Order — Page 212
1\velfth Friday Sen11on Feb 08, 1991 will in whatever manner it liked. During the course of further research on the subject, an interesting fact 2 came to light that: "The League of Nations mandate system was devised as a means for non-developed countries to be guided to independence and self-government with the help of the industrialized nations. " This was the philosophy behind the Mandate System. Lord Balfour was fully aware of this but he intentionally contravened its aim. In this regard, he was the man who performed the most sinister role. In order to bypass the spirit of the Mandate System h e wrote a secret memorandum to the British Cabinet, which has been included in the book 3 The Arab - Israeli Issue: "But Lord Balfour's views on Palestine were contained in a secret memorandum to the British Cabinet in 1919 which said that :. . . in Palestine we do not propose even to go through the form of consulting the wishes of the present inhabitants of the country. . . Zionism, be it right or wrong, good or bad, is. . . of far profounder import than the desires and prejudices of the 700,000 Arabs who now inhabit this ancient land". As far as the early figures of the migration of the Jews to Palestine, there are conflicting reports. However Paul Harper writes: 4 "At the end of the First World War, after 32 years of concentrated efforts 56,000 Jews, according to the British Census of 1918 had been settled in Palestine on some 2 per cent of its land area. British rule was the opportunity for the Zionist movement to turn what was still only a dream into reality. " 2 Ibid. Page 33. 3 Ibid. Page 33. 4 Ibid. Page 31. 212