Future of Revisionist Movement: No Secession from Zionist Organisation Mr. Meer Grossman Declares: E

I am aware that various reports are circulating touching the controversy which is proceeding within the Revisionist Union regarding our future relations with the Zionist Organisation, Mr. Meer Grossman, who is in charge of the work of the Executive Committee of the Zionist Revisionist World Union in London, declared in a statement to the J.T.A. to-day with regard to reports which are current concerning an impending split in the Revisionist movement over a demand by Mr. Jabotinsky and his supporters that the Revisionists should leave the Zionist Organisation and create an independent Zionist Organisation.

Some of these reports are of a sensational character, such as that we are being forced to transfer the head office from London, Mr. Grossman continued. There is no truth whatever in this. The bald facts are that a discussion regarding our future relations with the Zionist Organisation is going on within the Revisionist Union. The course which this discussion was to follow was decided at the recent Revisionist Conference in Basle, where decisions were reached, which it was hoped, would prevent the discussion becoming the property of the sensational press. It was further decided that the head office was to remain in London until the meeting of the Revisionist World Conference.

Moreover, the Basle Conference agreed that our work in the meantime was to proceed on the lines laid down at the various Revisionist Conferences, i.e., status quo. The Executive Committee in London as such can therefore take no other course than that marked out at the Basle Conference. The office will remain in London in accordance with the Conference’s decision.

Meanwhile, the Executive Committee in fulfilment of the wishes of the Organisation as expressed at Basle is proceeding with its work in an orderly fashion. It is extending its internal organisation, arranging the periodic conferences in various countries, and preparing for the Revisionist World Conference in December.

It is also continuing with its political work in London and abroad, which is regarded as of the utmost importance at the present moment. Further, it is initiating important economic work which will have a direct connection with Palestine and will be closely bound up with Palestine immigration. The Executive Committee is determined, that no developments, not in agreement with the decisions of the Revisionist Conferences, shall divert it from its work.

I particularly desire to say, Mr. Grossman concluded, that there is no truth in any suggestion that Mr. Jabotinsky has been kept from effective leadership of the Party. No single member of the Executive Committee has called into question Mr. Jabotinsky’s position as leader, nor is there any personal animosity or rivalry on the part of any of the Executive Committee.

MR. JABOTINSKY’S ATTITUDE.

An indication of what is going on in the Revisionist Union was furnished by Mr. Jabotinsky in an interview with the J.T.A. published about six weeks ago in the J.T.A. Bulletin of July 23rd.

The Revisionist Party will now have to decide whether to continue its work for the revival of the present Zionist Organisation or whether it will create a new Zionist Organisation, he said.

On the most essential details complete harmony has already been established among the leading Revisionists. All agree that the Revisionist Union should continue its independent political activities and that the Revisionists should no longer be affiliated to the existing Zionist Federation. The question as to whether the Revisionists should participate in the next Congress will be left open until the Shekel Campaign for the Eighteenth Zionist Congress in 1933 is launched.

The only point on which unanimity between the Revisionist leaders has not been reached is the question as to whether their representatives should attend the meetings of the General Council of the Zionist Organisation. This question was not put to the vote, although it could have been settled at the Revisionist Conference at Basle, which was held immediately after the Zionist Congress. I feel that this might be attributed to the undue pressure on the part of delegates who were tired out by the fortnight’s struggle at the Congress. It would not have been in accordance with Revisionist traditions to decide such a crucial problem without unanimous consent. For this reason I proposed that the question should be left open for settlement until December, when the World Conference of the Revisionist Party will meet. The ton Revisionist representatives on the General Zionist Council will in the meantime attend the meetings of this body, while I personally will take a much needed rest until the Revisionist Conference in December.

I have nothing to say about the results of the Seventeenth Zionist Congress, Mr. Jabotinsky went on. I did not re-enter the Congress hall after the resolution on the Judenstaat formula was rejected. I tore up then my delegate’s card, and I am no longer concerned with anything that happened at the assembly. I consider the behaviour of the Revisionists at the Congress to have been tactful, firm and wise. I am at liberty to say this, since I was not responsible for the Revisionist tactics.

My personal opinion was, and still is, that we had nothing to do with a Congress of an association which is merely an appendix to a non-Zionist “agency”. The Executive Committee of the Revisionist Party is composed of adherents of the various tendencies prevailing in the Revisionist Party. Naturally, I have reserved for myself the right to defend before the Revisionist Conference my own point of view.

Considering that there are Revisionists who would at this moment regret a complete severance of connection with the Zionist Organisation, I do not intend to oppose such connection as a mere symbol to the extent only that Revisionists should be present at the meetings of the General Zionist Council merely as observers. I shall, however, firmly oppose any form of practical co-operation, even if as an opposition within the Zionist Organisation, considering that this body is doomed by its own fault to sink soon into impotence and insignificance. The only successor to the Zionist Organisation created by Herzl is the Revisionist Union, and all those who desire to carry on the tradition of Herzl will have to join this Union, Mr. Jabotinsky concluded.