British Attitude to Jewish Agency Promises to Be Constructive Says Warburg

The attitude of the British Government towards the proposed enlarged Jewish Agency and the recommendations of the Joint Palestine Survey Commission promises to be most constructive, declared Felix M. Warburg, in a special interview on the subject of the forthcoming Non-Zionist Conference to be held in New York on October 20-21.

Mr. Warburg has great hopes for the Conference. As one of the four high commissioners responsible for the report of the Joint Palestine Survey Commission, Mr. Warburg visited Palestine in 1927. From the very inception of the negotiations with the Zionist executives, through the various stages that have preceded the calling of the Non-Zionist Conference, Mr. Warburg has collaborated to the fullest extent with Mr. Louis Marshall, the leading spirit in the movement.

“My work with the Palestine Joint Survey Commission,” said Mr. Warburg in answer to a question as to his own findings about Palestine, “gave me an opportunity to learn the facts concerning that land in a more thorough manner than it is possible during a short visit. I doubt if ever before there was a study of Palestine conducted by a body of independent experts on such a comprehensive scale. The Survey Commission disregarded all personal or partisan factors. The experts could not be guided by prescriptions emanating from far-away countries or from cabinet philosophers. Yet the investigators were not blind to the self-sacrifice of the pioneers who are building up Palestine.

“As one of the signers of the report, I confess that my fondest hopes where I congress that my fondest hopes were fulfilled when the Commission arrived at its unanimous recommendations–satisfactory to such eminent and critical minds as those of Mr. Louis Marshall and Dr. Chaim Weizmann. If Dr. Weizmann had been a man of smaller stature, he might have gone in for fault-finding in a partisan spirit. He rose above mere partisanship, however and acknowledgement is due to him for his share in the gratifying accord achieved.”

When asked how the British Government regarded the recommendations of the Joint Palestine Survey Commission and the proposed participation of American Jewry in the enlarged Jewish Agency, Mr. Warburg stated:

“During our sojourn in London last summer, we held conversations with the Colonial Office of His Majesty’s Government. The attitude of the higher officials was one of the utmost friendliness. They displayed the keenest interest in the recommendations of the Joint Palestine Survey Commission. Their position on the question of the enlarged Jewish Agency promises to be most constructive in the great tasks ahead of us.

“It greet the meeting of the Non-Zionist Conference with confidence. There is no doubt in my mind, on the basis of my experience in the councils of the J. D. C., that once the proposed enlarge Jewish Agency is called into existence, where trustworthy Zionists and non-Zionists will sit side by side, all past differences will be forgotten and all minds will be centered on the main objective of reconstructing the Holy Land. We shall be able to solve our great problems without passion, without being influenced by our other interests and affiliations, without any consideration but that of Palestine and with a common determination to measure up to the great job before us.

“When I first went to Palestine, I approached the country with great misgivings. I came out imbued with the spirit of tremendous sacrifice animating the settlers. Without comfort, without limelight, without the ambition to amass fortunes–all the three elements frequently attributed to the Jew by those who know him not–the pioncers in the Holy Land have gone ahead, their eyes set upon their great ideal, in a spirit that cannot but command one’s deepest admiration. It is a spirit to which we cannot faill to respond,” Mr. Warburg declared.