American Leaders Go to London for First Session of Jewish Agency Commission

The first session of the non-partisan Palestine Survey Commission, created under the agreement of January 17, 1927 concluded in New York between Louis Marshall, representing a non-Zionist group, and Dr. Chaim Weizmann, president of the World Zionist Organization, will open in London on June 9 with the participation of all the American and European members of the Commission, Dr. Lee K. Frankel, vice-president of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and a member of the Commission, announced yesterday to the Jewish Daily Bulletin.

The American members of the Commission, Felix M. Warburg and Dr. Lee K. Frankel, will sail shortly for London to meet with the European members, Sir Alfred Mond, former Minister of Public Works in Lloyd George’s cabinet and outstanding British industrialist, and Herr Oscar Wassermann, president of the Deutsche Reichsbank. Mr. Louis Marshall and Dr. Weizmann will meet with the Commissioners in London.

The purpose of the meeting is to consider and act upon the reports of the experts who have investigated the agricultural, industrial, financial and labor possibilities and problems of Palestine with a view to enabling the Commission to make findings and recommendations as to the best methods of furthering the development of the country under the terms of the Mandate of the League of Nations for the establishment of a Jewish National Home in Palestine.

Felix M. Warburg and Dr. Chaim Weizmann will sail for London on May 23 on the Mauretania, while Dr. Frankel and Mr. Marshall will sail on the Majestic on June 2. Dr. Maurice B. Hexter, director of the Federated Jewish Charities of Boston, who is secretary of the Commission, will sail with Mr. Marshall and Dr. Frankel on the Majestic. The American members will be the guests of Sir Alfred Mond during the week-end beginning June 9 at his country estate. The deliberations of the Commission are scheduled to begin on that day, to be continued in London until the work is completed.

The reports of the experts, including those of Professor Elwood Mead of the United States Reclamation Bureau; Professor Jacob G. Lipman. director of the Agricultural Experiment station of New Brunswick, N. J., Professor Frank Adams, agricultural economist of the University of California; Mr. Knowles Ryerson, horticultural advisor to the Government of Haiti; A. T. Strahorn, soil expert of the Bureau of Soils, United States Department of Agriculture; C. Q. Henriques, expert on irrigation, late of the Public Works Department of the Government of India; Sir John Russell, director of the Rothampstead Agriculture Experiment station, Hartenden, England; Sir John Campbell who was prominently connected with the repatriation of the Greek residents of Turkey; Dr. Milton J. Rosenau of Harvard University; Dr. Charles F. Wilinsky of the Boston City Health Department and Mr. Leo Wolman of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, are nearly complete.

Upon the basis of the experts’ findings, the Commission is expected to formulate its conclusions and recommendations. It is believed that conferences with representatives of the British Government on the basis of the Commission’s recommendations are likely to be a part of the London proceedings.

Mr. Louis Marshall, yielding to the urgency of the commissioners, has reluctantly consented to go to London to attend the sessions, although the original plan called for a meeting in New York, because of his desire to expedite the work of the Commission which it is hoped will lead to the consummation of a plan for the extension of the Jewish Agency so as to include Zionists and non-Zionists, as provided in Article IV of the Palestine Mandate.

The Jewish Daily Bulletin has learned that upon the conclusion of the London session of the Jewish Agency Commission, substantial parts of the various reports, which for the first time will present an exhaustive scientific analysis of Palestine’s economic possibilities and of the work already accomplshed there, will be made public.

It may be expected that a non-partisan conference of Jewish leaders in the United States, both Zionists and non-Zionists, will be called for the early fall to receive and act upon the Commission’s recommendations.