News Brief

A suggestion that the colonization work in Palestine should be excluded from the general budget for development there and that a separate colonization budget should be created was made by Dr. Arthur M. Ruppin, member of the World Zionist Executive and former director of the colonization work in Palestine, speaking at the opening session of the Actions Committee of the World Zionist Organization, in an address in which he outlined the economic situation in Palestine and the colonization problems.

SIMPSON’S INVESTIGATION PRAISED

Sir John Hope Simpson, who recently completed an investigation of the land and immigration problems in Palestine, was declared by Dr. Ruppin to be the most thorough investigator who had been assigned to the country. “He studied seriously facts and figures,” said Dr. Ruppin. “We must dismiss the idea that we ought to pursue an attitude of non-cooperation as regards his report, because besides the fact that Sir John has possession of full information as to conditions which we gladly gave him because we have nothing to conceal, we agree with the Government that they should create an Arab colonization bank to provide short term credits for the Arabs, provided we receive long-term credits.”

Dr. Ruppin also stated that Sir John was informed that inasmuch as the economic situation is not regulated by mathematics Britain should not delay in allowing the Jews economic freedom.

SAYS SIMPSON PRAISED COLONIZATION

Stating that Simpson had told him that he had never anywhere seen such colonization work as is being accomplished by the Jews in Palestine, Dr. Ruppin said that the investigator had declared himself inspired with the progress that the Jews have made there. It is uncertain, the speaker stated, whether or not Sir John will formulate any conclusions in his report to the British Government, or limit himself to a statement of facts.

Leon Motzkin, chairman of the Actions Committee, greeted the presence of Judge Julian Mack, member of the American Brandeis-Mack group, which after nine years of absence from the Zionist movement, reentered the United States Organization when a coalition administration was formed at the recent Cleveland convention. Mr. Motzkin spoke in memory of the late Abraham Podlyshevski, leader of the Polish Zionist Organization, whose passing, he said, was an irreparable loss.

SAYS PRESENT COMMITTEE STRONGEST

The present Actions Committee, the chairman said, is the strongest the organization has ever known, including as it does in many instances, the presidents of Zionist national federations. This indicates, he stated, with what seriousness the Zionist world regards the present tense situation.

Mr. Motzkin told the committee that C. F. Strickland, Colonial Office expert on cooperatives, who had gone to Palestine to study the possibility of the extension of Arab cooperatives, had extended his inquiry to include the cooperatives of the Jewish settlers, which, Mr. Strickland declared, were among the finest in the world.

WARBURG, WEIZMANN ON WAY HERE

Felix M. Warburg, chairman of the administrative committee of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, and Dr. Chaim Weizmann, president of the World Zionist Organization, are expected here tonight. Among those who attended today’s session were: Nahum Sokolow, president of the Zionist Executive; Dr. Felix Rosenblueth, Louis Lipsky, former president of the American Zionist Organization; S. Kaplan Kaplansky, leader of the Poale Zion movement; Rabbi Meier Berlin, president of the World Mizrachi, orthodox Zionist organization; Menachem M. Ussisshkin, president of the Jewish National Fund; Dr. Arthur Hantke, former president of the Zionist Federation of Germany, and Berthold Feiwel, member of the World Zionist Executive.