HOPE SIMPSON, Sir John.: Palestine: Report on Immigration, Land Settlement and Development. , London: HMSO Cmd 3686, Oct 1930.

Following the violence in August 1929 and the Report of the Shaw Commission [Cmd3530], Hope Simpson, on his own, was asked to conduct this survey within three months. He was a very experienced administrator, having just overseen the huge population exchange between Turkey & Greece after WW1. His comments on education, health and other matters on the fringe of Agriculture were cogent as was his survey of crops. Nevertheless it was a mammoth task for one man, under-resourced, and one which resulted in miscalculations and misunderstandings. He commissioned surveys using aerial photographic methods [two technologies in their infancy] to calculate land utilisation, but his basic data was faulty as the total land area had not been surveyed, and the Director of Surveys had different figures for areas of cultivable land from the Commissioner of Lands. This report resulted in a decision to limit immigration as detailed in Cmd3692, and misled Whitehall in its proposals. Whitehall was soon forced to retract them. This whole episode fatally undermined British status and authority with both Jews and Arabs. This 185pp book has been attractively rebound more robustly in hardback using the original card covers. 25 appendices with various details relative to agriculture. No marks or other damage. A good copy. (Book ref. 38323)  £125.00

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