ABSTRACT
The dispatch of a Royal Commission, mandated to “ascertain the underlying causes of the disturbances which broke out in Palestine” and to determine whether “either the Arabs or the Jews [had] any legitimate grievances upon account of the way in which the Mandate has been ... implemented”,1 set into motion a stylised arbitration procedure, whereby Arabs and Zionists were encouraged, even more than they had been before, to direct their attentions and their efforts not towards each other, but towards the British. Lord Peel and the other commissioners held hearings in Palestine and in London, and heard Arab and Zionist spokesmen clarifying and restating their respective positions, grievances and demands - invariably in less generous terms than had been hinted at through intermediaries or in secret talks with each other during the preced ing months.
