ABSTRACT
FOR thirty years, from the end of the first world war until the emergence of the State of Israel, Palestine was one of the major preoccupations of the British Government, presenting a problem which increased steadily in difficulty and complexity until it became, in the years following the second world war, possibly the most important problem of the day. It was, unfortunately, a problem concerning which there was widespread misunderstanding, a misunderstanding, however, which in no way prevented the active verbal interference of highly placed people in England, the United States and elsewhere. The solution, when it eventually arrived, was not so much a solution as an abandonment of responsibility, and it has left a legacy of bitterness and distrust throughout the Arab Middle East which is likely to endure, in some form or other, for as many years as the problem itself took to reach its full maturity.
