The importance which the U.S.Government attaches to the Balfour Declaration was emphasized today by Secretary of State Cordell Hull in a message in which he revealed that the State Department was ready to send a representative to the meeting held last Sunday at Carnegie Hall here to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the historic document under which the establishment of Palestine as a Jewish National Home was promised.
The message, addressed to Dr. Stephen S. Wise, chairman of the American Emergency Committee for Zionist Affairs, expressed regret that a telegram informing the State Department of the New York meeting reached Secretary Hull late. “Had the telegram been delivered to me earlier. I should have been happy to send a representative of the State Department” the Secretary of State declared. Referring to the statement which he made last week to a rabbinical delegation that America has watched “with interest and sympathy” the implementation of the Balfour Declaration, Mr. Hull explained in his message that “this is in line with similar expressions of former Presidents and Congresses.”
A message emphasizing the importance of the Balfour Declaration was also received by the Emergency Committee from Justice Felix Frankfurter. Recalling Lord Balfour’s statement that the effect of Zionism “would be world-wide and that it was a serious attempt to mitigate age-long miseries created for Western civilization by the existence of the unsolved Jewish problem,” Justice Frankfurter said.” Lord Balfour’s prophecy has been underwritten by events never contemplated even by his imagination. But these events have also underscored the wisdom that under lies the Balfour Declaration and the civilized purposes at which it aimed.”
DR. WEIZMANN CABLES TO HEADS OF GOVERNMENTS
The text of a message cabled by Dr. Chaim Weizmann, president of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, to the heads of various nations which have endorsed and supported the Balfour Declaration, was made public here today by the Committee. Thanking these governments for their help in establishing the Jewish Homeland in Palestine Dr. Weizmann said that the Balfour Declaration today is a “beacon of hope” for the Jews in Nazi-enslaved Europe. He emphasized the Jewish people’s solidarity with the United Nations.
The Committee today also released messages to Dr. Weizmann and to Dr. Wise from leaders of many of the United Nations, including Polish Foreign Minister Raczynski, Jan Masaryk, Foreign Minister of the Czechoslovakian Government-in-Exile, Dr. Juarj Krnjevic, Vice-Premier of the Yugoslav Government-in-Exile, and Prime Minister Jan Smuts of the Union of South Africa. Similar congratulatory messages were sent by Viscount Robert Cecil, Henry Monsky, president of the B’nai B’rith and J. Galbe, charge d’affaires of the Norwegian embassy in Washington.
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.
