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sufficient numbers of Jews would                                    the British Mandate would function
            emigrate to Palestine from Europe                                   to encourage Jewish immigration
            and elsewhere under the protection                                  whilst at the same time postponing
            of the Mandate, bringing with them                                  self-determination until such time
            their capital, skills and westernised                               as the Jews outnumbered the
            outlook.                                                            indigenous Arabs in Palestine.
                                                                                Only thus could a normalised, and
            Indigenous self-                                                    legalised Jewish state be brought
            determination                                                       about in due time.  Lloyd George
            Britain was further motivated by                                    and Balfour, in their memoirs,
            its commitment to the notion of                                     claimed that this had always been
            self-determination and proportional                                 their intention, though they saw
            representation of indigenous                                        Britain’s role as only facilitating
            peoples in the newly created                                        these efforts, not as guaranteeing
            post-war democracies.  By 1920,                                     the end result of Jewish statehood. 2
            the Jewish population in Palestine
            was in a clear minority.  So, had                                   Optimistic compromise
            proportional representation been                                    However, the British government
            implemented immediately, then an                                    was also keenly aware that Britain
            Arab majority would have formed                                     needed to appease the Arabs, as
            the ruling government, whose first   Chaim Weizmann and other leading   otherwise there may be a concerted
            goal would undoubtedly have been   Zionists had persuaded Balfour   rebellion by the masses of Muslims
            to curtail if not completely stop   and, to a lesser degree, the Prime   throughout Britain’s colonies.  So,
            any further Jewish immigration.    Minister David Lloyd George that,   for Britain’s strategy to work, the
            This would have resulted in the   given the opportunity offered them   wording of the Balfour Declaration
            immediate stillbirth of Jewish hopes   through the Balfour Declaration and   and hence the aims of the Mandate
            for an ultimate Jewish State.     British Mandate, Jews in their    would have to be ‘fudged’ and
                                              millions would rapidly emigrate   sufficiently ambiguous so that
                   “Britain was               to the land of Israel, especially   Britain could not be accused of
                                              from Russia.  If that happened, as
                                                                                favouring either the Jews or the
                   committed to               Weizmann sincerely hoped and      Arabs.   The anticipated hope
                                                                                     3
                                                      1
              self-determination of           expected, then in a decade or so   and intention for the eventual
                                              the Jewish population in Eretz Israel
                                                                                emergence of a Jewish state could
               indigenous peoples”            would have increased to become    therefore only be embedded into the
                                              the majority.  In such a scenario,
                                                                                San Remo mandate commitment


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