Page:Report of the Commission on the Palestine Disturbances of August 1929 cmd 3530.djvu/6

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six were individuals resident in Palestine, of whom three were Arabs and three were Jews. A list of meetings and of the wit- nesses whose evidence we heard is given in Appendix III to this report.

Representatives of the Press and a number of the public were admitted to our first meeting which was held in a room provided by the Palestine Government at the Law Courts. The very limited character of the accommodation available at the offices of the Commission prevented the grant of similar facilities for the remainder of the public sessions, but arrangements were made for the admission to those sessions of four representatives of the Press and, in view of the wide public interest taken in the closing speeches, a few members of the public were admitted to the last three open sessions at which those speeches were delivered. Admission to the sessions held in camera was re- stricted to the Commissioners, their staff, and the witness whose evidence was being heard.

During the proceedings held in open session 187 documents or collections of documents were proved before us and put in as exhibits. A list of these documents is given in Appendix IV. to this report. We have also taken into account 19 other docu- ments of which four were put in by witnesses heard in camera, two were memoranda which were accepted in lieu of oral evidence, and the remainder were memoranda furnished by the Palestine Government at our request.

We have recommended that the evidence which we heard in open session should be printed and published together with a selection from the documents put in as exhibits during those sessions and we understand that this recommendation has been accepted by His Majesty’s Government. We have already in- formed you that the publication of the evidence heard during sessions held in camera appears to us to be open to the objection that some of the witnesses who appeared before us during those sessions gave their evidence under the impression that it would not be published. We recommend, however, that the evidence heard in camera, together with a number of the 19 documents to which we have referred above, should be reproduced for the confidential use of the Colonial Office.

Though our proceedings in Palestine were throughout con- ducted in Jerusalem, we visited many parts of that country and Trans-Jordan. From the brief record of our travels contained in Appendix IT. to this report, it will be seen that in addition to Hebron and Safed, where the most violent outbreaks occurred, we visited almost all the principal towns of Palestine and traversed most of the main roads of that country. Everywhere we have listened to the views of the people whom we met, cluding many demonstrations both organized and sponene sn: everywhere we were received with kindly welcome and, where time and opportunity permitted, with hospitality. Though much

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