Representative Hamilton Fish, who in 1923 was sponsor of the Congressional resolution appropriating $10,000,000 for relief of starvation in Germany, tonight proposed a Government grant of between ten and twenty millions to settle Jewish refugees in Palestine. Addressing 1,000 persons at the annual dinner of the Order Sons of Zion at the Hotel Astor, Mr. Fish cited as precedents for such an appropriation the grant for relief in Germany and the $20,000,000 American allocation for famine relief in Soviet Russia and Austria after the World War.
At the same time, the New York Representative, who was co-author of the 1922 Congressional resolution supporting a Jewish homeland in Palestine, urged the British Government to permit “several hundred thousand German and Austrian Jews to find a place of refuge and home in Palestine.” He opposed settlement of refugees in former German colonies in Africa, “as these colonies will in all probability be restored to Germany within the next ten years.” He concluded with an attack on Nazism in the United States.
The dinner marked the completion of a $100,000 fund for establishment of a colony for 1,000 refugees in Palestine. Other speakers were Robert Szold, Dr. Israel Goldstein, Morris Margulies, Dr. Harris J. Levine, Grandmaster of the order, who presided, and other officers of the order. Messages were received from Dr. Stephen S. Wise, Dr. Solomon Goldman and Menachem M. Ussishkin.
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.
