Mourning for Nathan Straus: Messages from Palestine High Commissioner and Head of Palestine Governme

The High Commissioner for Palestine, Sir John Chancellor, has through the Chief Secretary to the Palestine Government sent a message to the Executive of the Jewish Agency to inform them of “His Excellency’s deep regret at the death of Mr. Nathan Straus. The many charitable gifts which Mr. Nathan Straus bestowed on Palestine”, the message says,” will not be forgotten. His endowments for the promotion of social hygiene and infant welfare among all sections of the community remains a lasting memorial to his philanthropy in the Holy Land. I shall be grateful”, the message concludes, “if the Jewish Agency Executive will be good enough to communicate to the Jewish Agency and to the Hadassah His Excellency’s deep sympathy.”

Colonel G. W. Heron, the Director of the Health Department of the Palestine Government, has given the Jewish Telegraphic Agency here the following tribute to the late Mr. Nathan Straus, appearing to-morrow in the “Palestine Bulletin”:

Mr. Straus’s system of pasteurised milk distribution was the principal reason for the remarkable diminution of the infantile death rate in recent years in America, Europe and elsewhere. In Palestine, his benefactions, with which his wife was associated, were designed to benefit all communities, and were in no way influenced by political considerations. His generosity is remembered by those who suffered destruction of their property in the 1927 earthquake in Palestine. The value of his Health Centres in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv from the curative, educational and charitable aspects cannot be too highly emphasised. The influence which they exert on the minds and bodies of the children of Palestine will be a permanent memorial to the great and wise benefactor.

The pinnacle of Mr. Nathan Straus’s achievements in Palestine was the Health Centres which he built in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, the Hebrew daily “Haaretz” writes. They cost the great philanthropist half a million dollars to erect, but the magnificent structures are practically unused, because there is no money for developing the activities for which the buildings were erected.