Churchill’s Official Visit to Palestine, 1921
In January 1921, Prime Minister David Lloyd George appointed Winston Churchill Secretary of State for the Colonies, commonly referred to as the Colonial Secretary, with special responsibility for Britain’s two Mandates, Palestine and Mesopotamia (Iraq).
Lloyd George explained that in both places Churchill’s main purpose was to reduce the cost of administering those distant and largely desert regions. With regard to Palestine, there was a second objective, no less important for the British Government. It was to carry out the terms of the Balfour Declaration and facilitate the establishment of a Jewish National Home. Churchill’s official trips as Colonial Secretary to accomplish Lloyd George’s directives included a memorable eight-day visit to Palestine in 1921.
Origins of British Administration of Palestine
Britain’s administration of Palestine was assigned by the League of Nations in the Mandate for Palestine in 1920. The mandate document encompassed the territories of Palestine and Transjordan, the lands west and east of the River Jordan respectively, both of which had been conceded by the Ottoman Empire following the end of the First World War in 1918. The mandate was given to Britain at the San Remo Conference of former wartime allies in April 1920.
Class A of the Mandate for Palestine included former Turkish provinces recognized as Palestine, Mesopotamia (Iraq), and Syria. The first two were assigned to the administration of Great Britain and the third to
