15th Anniversary of Balfour Declaration Marked at Mass Meeting Here

The fifteenth anniversary of the issuance of the Balfour Declaration, which constitutes the foundation for the rebuilding of the Jewish National Home in Palestine under international legal sanction, was celebrated in New York last night at a mass meeting at the Hotel Pennsylvania.

The meeting was addressed by Louis Lipsky, former president of the Zionist Organization of America ; Dr. Stephen S. Wise, Nathan Straus, Jr., Maurice Samuel, Abraham Goldberg, Robert Szold, and Carl Sherman, president of the New York Zionist region, who presided.

Praise for the part played by American Jews in the rebuilding of Palestine was expressed in a message sent by the British Ambassador at Washington, Ronald C. Lindsay, to Morris Margulies, Secretary of the Zionist Organization of America, under whose auspices the mass meeting was held.

“I take occasion to send you my friendly greetings and to express my admiration of the efforts put forth by the Jewish communities of the whole world to build up a Jewish National Home and the prosperity of Palestine. To this work none have contributed as much as the Jewish communities of America,” declared Ambassador Lindsay.

A keynote of satisfaction with the present High Commissioner of Palestine, in contrast to the dissatisfaction that has prevailed among Jews for the last three years was sounded by Mr. Lipsky.

In the course of his address, Mr. Lipsky said:

“The high idealism responsible for the Balfour Declaration has wholly disappeared in the past fifteen years,” Mr. Lipsky pointed out, “and with other enthusiasms and sentiments born of the period has dissolved in the painful aftermath of the so-called peace era. In 1917, the Zionists were under the impression they were on the verge of fulfilling an age-long hope—the Jewish Nationality had been recognized; the territory had been assigned to it; the path of redemption and renaissance was open and free.

“But as with all other war aims, the Declaration had to be incorporated in a text which became the Palestine Mandate; a Mandatory Government had to be selected and the text was left to be interpreted and acted upon by administration. What had been a pledge to right an age-long wrong was transformed into a written contract, the terms of which were to be found in congealed words. The Declaration had all emotion and sentiment taken out of it by administration. Upon the

basis of an incident of the Declaration, as to ‘the civil and religious rights of non-Jewish communities in Palestine,’ there was built up the devastating theory of balance as between Jews and Arabs. A theory of parity was introduced in a matter which depended for its fulfillment fundamentally upon priority right and precedent to the disinherited Jews whose new position was to be established. The fatal proviso was the cause of amendments and deviations which lead to the Churchill White Paper and ultimately to the Passfield incident. In the fifteen-year life of the Declaration, there was injustice on the part of administrators, a closed door to immigration, mob violence and innumerable partisan investigations. Rarely have the hopes of a people been so ruthlessly frustrated.

“Now, we have come to the period of High Commissioner Wauchope. It is an efficient administration. It has provided Jews with ample protection. It has come at a time when economic progress has forced the opening of the door to immigration. It is a fair and liberal administration, but it still labors with the precedents created by the Churchill White Paper. It is still hindered by reminiscences of the Passfield incident and the good it does is always conditioned by fears and anxieties arising out of the precedents of the first fourteen years.

“The idealism of the Zionist movement produced the world reversal that made the Balfour Declaration possible. Our rights as contained in the Mandate we shall defend with energy and fairness to the Mandatory Government. The living organism of the National Home will soon contain within itself so much moral and material power that in the years to come it may create again in the world at large a reaction toward idealism which will bring about, it is hoped, the fulfillment of the national aspirations of the Jewish people, which is not a vain and glorious ideal, but an ideal required for the permanent solution of the Jewish problem and also for the betterment of the civilization of the world.”

“Balfour is one of the great names bound up with Jewish history,” Dr. Wise declared. “It represents a phase of the Zionist movement as truly as does the name of Herzl. Herzl’s tokens, Jewish self-determination; Balfour tokens, non-Jewish cooperation.

“We are not as people unmindful of Israel’s indebtedness to the nation which first raised its flag in salute to our resurrected standard. If we asked the fulfillment of Britain’s obligation as the Mandatory Power on behalf of the League of Nations, it is because we have solemnly put our trust as a people in the honor of Britain, and we shrink in horror from the possibility of the non-fulfillment of the most solemn of vows.”

Dr. Wise spoke optimistically of the present status of Jewish life in Palestine. He referred to the financial status of Palestine which viewing the difference between the populations of the United States and Palestine, indicates that Palestine, thanks first to Jewish efforts and second to British government, is unbelievably prosperous as compared with the American people. Dr. Wise called attention to the steadily increasing Jewish population and predicted that the time is not distant when misunderstandings between Arab and Jew will cease and Arabs will come to see that the Jew came to Palestine not to undermine and to hurt but to build and to bless.

There are three tasks which confront the Jewish people today, Robert Szold, former Zionist Chairman, declared.

“Our immediate task,” he said, “is to secure for Palestine the maximum number of Jews in the shortest space of time. It is not for us on the outside to attempt to specify the particular type of Jew or his social or political philosophy. The Jews in Palestine will work out their own salvation.

“To accomplish the purpose, a sound economic base is indispensable. The third essential factor is a recognition of the great economic possibilities in Palestine from the industrial and commercial standpoint, as well as the large opportunities in horticulture and agriculture.”

SAMUEL EXPLAINS PALESTINE “PROSPERITY”

An explanation of the sound economic status of Palestine was provided at the meeting by Maurice Samuel, Jewish author, who has just returned from a six months’ stay in Palestine, who said:

“The economy of the Jewish homeland was being built up laboriously when the world at large was enjoying prosperity. Comparatively little money flowed into Palestine then; and therefore every enterprise in the country was built up with the utmost caution, and on the most solid foundation.”

SEES U. S. INTERESTED IN MANDATE

The view that the United States is directly interested in the Palestine Mandate was expressed by Morris Rothenberg, President of the Zionist Organization of America, in a message sent to the meeting from Chicago, where he is now visiting as part of a transcontinental tour in the interests of the Zionist Organization. He wrote, in part :

“It must be said, with regret and some apprehension, that the British Government, voluntarily assuming partnership in the reconstitution of the Jewish Homeland, does not have to its credit an unblemished record of cooperation.

“It is noteworthy to observe that the American Government, despite the fact that it is not a member of the League of Nations, takes a deep interest in the administration of mandated territories. Its attitude of concern with mandated territories, demonstrated a few days ago in the correspondence between the American Embassy at London and the British Foreign Office in regard to Iraq, gives added reason for the view that our Government will continue to watch with deep interest the development of events in Palestine.”

In his speech, Abraham Goldberg, member of the Administrative Committee of the Zionist Organization, said:

“At the fifteenth anniversary, we may say definitely that the success of the Jewish people in Palestine will compel the Powers to give full value to this document, even if it be in spite of themselves.”