Palestine

Office diaries kept while serving as a senior officer in Jerusalem and Jaffa.

1923 · 178497 — 1923-31. Policing Palestine An absorbing day-to-day record of British policing in Mandatory Palestine these diaries chart the volatile years from 1920 to the early 1930s offering a granular view of religious and social tensions and of Britain's often self-serving pursuit of "law and order". Major Laurence Harrington joined the Palestine Police at its inception in July 1920 rose rapidly and served mainly in Jerusalem and Jaffa. He witnessed the 1929 disturbances and later gave evidence to the Shaw Commission. His diaries consist of brief functional entries kept for official purposes with gaps when volumes were sent for inspection and frequent references to named officers and local figures. Religious violence dominates the record. Harrington repeatedly investigates killings framed explicitly in religious terms orders precautionary deployments and manages flashpoints such as Labour Day nationalist demonstrations anniversaries strikes and boycotts. He records crowd control operations armed patrols prison break-outs manhunts with shoot-to-kill authority and the tense aftermath of the 1929 riots including censorship confiscations and plain-clothes operations to suppress unrest. Alongside this the diaries document routine but hazardous police work - drug-smuggling busts raids on suspected agitators and the exposure of corrupt informants - as well as Harrington's ceremonial duties escorting senior British officials and visiting dignitaries. His proximity to power brings an active social life offset by football as a constant release. The final volume anticipates the worsening climate of the 1930s with police on continual alert for political and communal triggers. No other diaries by Harrington are known to survive making this candid administrative record an unusually fortunate and valuable witness to the mandate's daily realities. 6 vols octavo. Original quarter cloth five black one red rebacked boards lettered in black. Bindings rubbed covers with splash stains and tidemarks and labels torn away internally some foxing and finger soiling. Overall in condition commensurate with maintaining a diary on active duty: well preserved. hardcover