The Struggle for Independence 181
pressed on with a policy at least as comprehensive as the White
Paper of 1922 can warrant. The Arabs, with unrelenting opposi-
tion, have refused to accept that document and have prosecuted a
political campaign designed to counter Jewish activities and to
realize their own political ambitions/ The Commission made
four main recommendations: (i) A clear statement of policy with
the least possible delay, including a definition of the meaning of the
passages in the Mandate which purported to safeguard the interests
of the 'non-Jewish' communities.
(2) A revision of the immigration regulations to prevent a
repetition of the excessive immigration of 1925/6 which had re-
sulted in considerable unemployment, and to provide for consulta-
tion with non-Jewish representatives with regard to it.
(3) An expert inquiry into the prospects of improving Arab
agricultural methods, and the regulation of land-policy according-
ly.
(4) A reaffirmation of the 1922 statement that 'the special posi-
tion assigned to the Zionist Organization by the Mandate does not
entitle it to share in any degree in the government of Palestine5.
Sir John Hope-Simpson, who was sent to Palestine to conduct
the agricultural inquiry, reported very conservatively on the ex-
tent of lands suitable for development. He did agree that "with
thorough development there will be room, not only for all the
present agricultural population on a higher standard of life than it
at present enjoys, but for not less than 20,000 families from out-
side*; but pending the completion of this development he was
opposed to the admission of any more Jews as settlers on the land,
as tending to displace Arab cultivators* The Passfield White Paper
of 1930, based on these two reports, restated the words used by
Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald a few months earlier: 4A
double undertaking is involved, to the Jewish people on the one
hand, and to the non-Jewish population of Palestine on the other',
and added that much of the recent agitation had arisen from the
failure, both by Arabs and by Jews, to realize the limits imposed on
British policy by this double undertaking. A new Department of
Development was to be given control of all disposition of land,
and land-transfers would be permitted only in so far as they did not
interfere with that authority's plans; any state land becoming
available should be earmarked for the settlement of landless Arab
cultivators.