Call Number:

MC.975.07.142

Repository:

Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections

Extent:

0.1 linear ft. (1 volume)

Language:

English, Arabic, and French

Preferred Citation:

Mission to Palestine on Behalf of the American Friends Service Committee and Friends Service Council of London (HC.MC.975-07-142), Quaker and Special Collections, Haverford College, Haverford, PA

Date:

1948

Creator:

Castle, E. B. (Edgar Bradshaw), 1897-1973

Form:

Reports

Abstract:

Edgar B. Castle's personal copy of his bound typescript account of the April 1948 mission to Palestine on behalf of the Friends Service Council (London) and the American Friends Service Committee.

Edgar Bradshaw Castle (1897-1973) was a British Quaker professor. He was Headmaster of Leighton Park School between 1928 and 1947, Professor of Education at the University of Hull between 1948 and 1961, and Visiting Professor in the University College of Makerere, Uganda, between 1961 and 1965.

Between April 15 and May 4, 1948, James G. Vail, Kendall G. Kimberland, and Edgar B. Castle traveled through Cairo, Beirut, Damascus, Amman, and Jerusalem to investigate Jewish and Palestinian tensions at the conclusion of the British Mandate. Castle represented the Palestine Watching Committee of the Friends Service Council (London), Vail represented the American Friends Service Committee, and Kimberland was a resident of Cairo who had experience with the American Friends service Committee and a knowledge of Arabic. The group had three objectives: to examine the possibility of practical service that would facilitate further reconciliation, to investigate the feasibility of a truce in the Old City of Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives, and to press for international action in the immediate appointment of a governor for Jerusalem and a neutral police force.

Edgar B. Castle's personal copy of his bound typescript account of the April 1948 mission to Palestine on behalf of the Friends Service Council (London) and the American Friends Service Committee. Likely the only copy, the volume includes an itinerary of the mission as well as a brief retrospective of the events in Palestine between early May 1948 and the report's finalization on October 3, 1948. Newspaper clippings, a pass from the Secretary-General of the Arab League, cablegrams, and a photograph of the three Quakers involved in the mission are inserted throughout.

1 volume