cause there is a determination, an idealism in the people which demands that it should take place."
Mr. Neville Laski, the newly-elected President of the Jewish Board of Deputies, made graceful allusion to the presence of Mr. J. H. Thomas, Minister for the Dominions. He also referred to Mr. Hore-Belisha, who is a Jew and financial secretary to the Treasury. Of him he said, "I was at school with Mr. Hore-Belisha, and he and I are Elders of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, which began as an institution as long ago as 1659, and as an ancient synagogue building in the reign of Queen Anne, which has a beam presented by Her late Majesty."
Mr. J. H. Thomas, who followed, paid a tribute to the patriotism of the late Lord Melchett. Then turning dramatically to the new Lord Melchett, he said, "I say to you with all sincerity, there are some who carry riches; there are some that are called upon to bear an honored and treasured name. Your father was in advance of his time. Posterity will show how wise he was. You bear a name that future generations will bless."
A notable speech was that delivered by Lady Snowden, the wife of Lord Snowden, who played so prominent a part in successive Labor Administrations, and in the last coalition Cabinet Lady Snowden, who is at present one of the directors of the British Broadcasting Corporation, which controls all the radio broadcasting in Great Britain, said, "I am touched most particularly by the feeling of the presence of the unseen guest, of the great man we are met to honor, our dear and admired friend, Lord Melchett, the father of our present chairman.
"Most people to whom I have spoken of the late Lord Melchett regarded him as a great genius in finance, in business, and the like. I knew him more particularly as a great scientist. We talked together on many subjects and found far more in common than there was to separate us, but we were particularly interested, as is our present Lord Melchett, in the subject of Zionism, and in Palestine. For a knowledge in that subject I went to Palestine and spent five weeks working twelve and fourteen hours a day to understand right down to the bottom that great experiment and all its implications. And I remember when I came back and talked to Lord Melchett, we were at one in the conviction, that what the world is undoubtedly suffering from is that it has been, and is trying to live without the Law and the Prophets, and that only in proportion as we get back to the Law and the Prophets—I use it in my own sense and not a very much different sense from your’s—only insofar as we get back to an appreciation of the fundamental character of the moral law, can there be an improvement in the sorrows of the world."
A notable evening was concluded with speeches by three members of Parliament, Dr. O’Donovan, Mr. B. Janner, and Major H. L. Nathan, all of whom represent Parliamentary constituencies which are largely Jewish.
Considerable interest was also evoked by the presence of Mr. R. D. Blumenthal, the famous journalist, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the "Daily Express," who is actively engaged in helping to raise funds for the Commercial Road Talmud Torah.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
