ABSTRACT
This chapter examines conversations among the Commissioners after leaving Palestine, revealing some of the personal and ideological fault lines that characterized these discussions. It examines what might be thought of as testimony received after the sessions of the Commission had concluded. The chapter outlines British military opinions on partition solicited by the Commission, and sheds light on the process by which Jewish and Arab leaders made their views on partition known to the Colonial Office and the Commission. It establishes the parameters of conflict in Palestine, while arguing that 'the policy of the Balfour Declaration was subjected to the operation of the Mandate System in 1919 in the belief that the obligations thereby undertaken towards the Arabs and the Jews respectively would not conflict'. The chapter presents the pre-First World War history of Palestine; the report emphasized the long historical connections of both Jews and Arabs to Palestine, and the importance of Jewish Diaspora history for understanding the current conflict.
