ABSTRACT
The report of the Peel Commission was presented to the government in June 1937. Its major finding was that the mandate in Palestine was no longer workable. It was evident that the goal of the second phase of the Arab rebellion was to force Britain to retreat from partition. Churchill was moved by his own frustrated political ambitions, and by his concern for Britain's position in the Middle East. Malcolm MacDonald, the new Colonial Secretary, was soon persuaded that even if the government had wanted to partition Palestine, none of the indigenous parties would agree to any specific plan. But the Foreign Office was concerned primarily with retaining Britain's foothold in the Middle East. Nicolson wrote an account of their meeting to his wife, the novelist Vita Sackville-West: The League's Permanent Mandates Commission discussed the new policy and reported that it was not consistent with its own interpretation of the mandate.
