ABSTRACT
During the last years of the Ottoman Administration Palestine had been represented, in common with the other parts of the Empire, in the Central Parliament in Constantinople. The numerical influence of Palestine's representatives there was insignificant and other influence small, for the control of the Empire was then in the hands of a small clique of Turks. With the withdrawal of the Ottoman officials before the British armies the machinery of government fell to pieces. The army authorities, as a matter of course, set up a temporary military administration which bridged the gap until the installation of a British civil one in July 1920. The offer of a Legislative Council which might well have in course of time developed into an organ of complete self-government for Palestine had been rejected by the spokesmen of the Arab population.
