British Colonial Secretary Pleads with American Jews to Continue Support for Palestine Work

Col. Amery, in Address before Canadian Zionists, Declares Palestine Depression Will Go Quickly and Forward Movement is Near; it Would be Unfortunate if Support Would Cease Now, He Says; Rebuilding of Palestine Has Great Value Not Only for Jews but for All Humanity; Will Enhance Patriotism of Jews for Countries in Which They Dwell (Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

Nothing would be more unfortunate than if those Jewish communities who have given such valuable assistance as well as moral support to the building up of Palestine during the last few years would not continue their support just because there is at this moment a temporary depression in Palestine, stated Colonel Leopold S. Amery, British Colonial Secretary, at a tea given in his honor, by the Canadian Zionist Organization at Mount Royal Hotel, Saturday afternoon. Louis Fitch, vice-president of the Canadian Zionist Organization who presided, assured Col. Amery that Canadian Jews who see before their eyes the working of the British Government in a country inhabited by two people, different in language and creed, which has resulted in making up such a splendid nation as Canada, are the first to appreciate the methods which the British administration has adopted in Palestine and they have confidence that what has succeeded in this country and in other parts of the British Empire will equally succeed in Palestine.

Colonel Amery in his address referred to the criticism of his Palestinian policy by the “London Daily Express” as quoted by the Canadian papers, declaring that such criticism was based either on mischievous intentions or ignorance of the facts.

Col. Amery said, “I was very much struck while travelling around the British Dominions to find the keen interest which, in each of those dominions, the Jewish community has taken in the work the British Government is carrying on in Palestine. I have met many deputations, some speakers have spoken with understanding, sympathy and appreciation of our work. Others have been critical, but I confess I never objected to a critic who really wants to get something done. In nine cases out of ten, when practical difficulties which he may not have thought of are explained, he ceases being a critic and becomes a friend. The kind of critic I have little use for is the critic who crabs for crabbing sake, who dislikes any policy that has any idea or any constructive aspect in it, and if one of those critics recently raised his voice again in the press, utilizing his position and trying to create confusion, I don’t think any serious harm is done.

“As a matter of fact,” the Secretary continued, “looking back upon the years that have passed since the war, looking on what we have done in Palestine merely as a piece of colonization and administration, we have no reason for being dissatisfied. You have to remember in the first place Palestine is a small country with limited resources. It is always possible it may be developed to such a pitch of intensive agriculture and industrial development that it may support twice or three times its present population. But there things do not happen in a day and we took over that country after centuries of misgovernment, fever stricken, without roads, without public buildings, without proper sanitation, without a modern or progressive code of laws and also with a native Arab population accustomed to the kind of conditions under which they had lived, terrified at the thought they were going to be made serfs of an imported Jewish population and in any case hostile to everything, Those were conditions requiring infinite tact, also infinite hard work, and I believe the British Administration in Palestine, whether under Sir Herbert Samuel, who did great work in his five years of office of under the kind soldier, Lord Plumer, has shown both those qualities.

“When we began, the attitude of the Arabs was one of terrified resentment and that resentment communicated itself a good deal to the outside world, so that apart from the stump press which always criticizes any responsibility Britain has undertaken, there was widespread feeling in Great Britain that we had committed ourselves to a policy which meant injustice to the Arabs,” Col. Amery said. “Consideration of Arab interests, patience, listening to their point of view, the gradual proof of fact, which showed them that Jewish immigration both of families and of capital contributed to the welfare of Palestine as a whole and therefore helped the Arab, proof of what a better system of government, greater security, greater public health, better roads, have done for the welfare and even for the opportunity of their own people — all these things brought about a different attitude that is an essential piece of foundation work, because if Palestine is to be built as a true national home for the Jews there must also be room in Palestine for a Palestinian local patriotism in which Arab and Jew can join together, in which the Arabs feel they are also an effective part of the community, where the realization of some form of self government is not postponed indefinitely. That moment would leave the two parties alone face to face with each other, they would fight not merely in a parliamentary sense but in open conflict with each other. Therefore it was a piece of essential fundamental work both to get the British nation behind the mandate as it is today and to get, if not enthusiasm, at any rate reasonable acquiescence in the mandate from the Arab population.

“We had to do a great deal of drainage work. Those who knew the kind of pestilential swamt the plain of the Emek was will see it today in the early spring as one continuous pale green field of wheat and barley with Arab villages and Jewish settlements dotted all over that plain, not in conflict with each other, but each realizing they have come into a heritage which did not exist until the country was drained. There again you realize the good foundation work that was done. Take the whole business of making roads, constructing schools, public buildings, revising the obsolete legal system, the obsolete financial system. It is so easy to think you can do all these things in a moment, but I know from my knowledge in the Colonial Office how difficult every new project is and how it is fully thought out, how it is submitted to the judgement and criticism of various parts of the community, how we endeavor to harmonize those difficulties, that they go backwards and forwards a number of times, how it is then published and left open for criticism for a good many months before it is finally put into effect because in the absence of parliamentary institutions it permits some room for public criticism and improvement in that way. Scores and scores of acts are required and each one takes a certain time. The constitution of the religious community took us the best part of two years to discuss, but I hope by that very fact we have avoided a serious error, and though we have moved slowly, we have moaed surely.

“The same has been our policy with regard to immigration. Nothing would have been more fatal to the progress and development of Palestine than if we had encouraged an indiscriminate host of emigrants to come in and then found them hopeless, out of work, within a few months,” he said. “Throughout the whole process we have been limiting the immigration to what after consultation between the authorities and the Zionist committee, and in view of all the facts of the case, we thought was the number that could come in and make a success. Unsuccessful Jewish immigrations are not going to help the national movement. People in business, people with capital, capable of doing well, they and their descendants with them, capable of doing productive work, was the British object and they are building a new Palestine not unsuccessfully. We took the view two or three years ago that we need not be so careful about the immigration of settlers with 500 pounds capital. Experience shows that perhaps we might have been more cautious. A large volume of immigrants of that type came in. A very fine type of immigrant, they included artists, scientists, professional men, all containing some of the best elements in a new community, and the money they spent stimulated that marvellous growth in building activity. But many shrewd judges who had seen the result of over development in other parts of the world were anxious and implored us to go steady. We did so, I think just in time, and today Palestine is facing, as it has been for the last two years, a considerable depression. There are a certain number who have to be helped with relief, a certain number whose capital has gone, who have to find various kinds of employment, but there is no impossible difficulty confroming them. On the contrary as I said to a deputation as Ottawa the other day, just as here in Canada the depression is passing over, so it a small country, with a small home marker, depression comes quickly and after goes quickly, and I have no doubt what-even that within not too long a time the temporary wave of depression will pass away and the sound work that has been done will prove a scanting point for more. It would be unfortunate if those Jewish communities who have given such valuable material as well as moral support to the building up of Palestine during the last few year–a support that the British Government has appreciated and regarded as valuable co-operation in the work we are doing ourselves a support that we welcome everywhere–if that support were not forthcoming just because at the moment there is a temporary depression, a temporary set-back. You will always hear from time to time that there are periods of prosperity and depression and I am confident that given support given work that the British Government is purring into the movement, given also support from the outside, that setback will be purely temporary that there will in the next few years be a steady advance, all the more steady because it has been on a sound foundation.

“I would like to impress on you it is not only in the administration that the work of the British Government in Palestine is good and sound, carried on by young man working enthusiastically for the country, but also in material progress. Tel Aviv is going to be a great industrial centre and we shall make ## one of the first ports in the Mediterranean Jewish colonies have steadily cleared not perhaps so much land as some enthusiasts hoped, but they are doing well, they are well rooted in themselves and they are a good example of how to work to develop.

“Take again Mount Scopus. I was struck the other day at Edmonton that the first thing the Alberta Government had done was to build a new university. The university in Palestine is on one of the most beautiful sites in the world, looking down on Judaea and on the City of Jerusalem, and across the valley of the Jordan, and northward over the hills of Judaea. There you have the beginning of an intellectual movement, a spiritual movement meaning very great things not only for Palestine and the Near East, not only for the Jewish world but for all humanity.

“I was first interested in Palestine during the war from a military point of view, securing the defense of the Suez Canal, but the other conception of it was brought to my attention by one of your best friends. I mean the late Sir Mark Sykes. He made me realize of how much value the moral movement might be, not only in bringing the East and West together, and bringing back to the development of those eastern lands a people filled with the ancient traditions of their true home, but also the moral effect on Jews all over the world making them not less patriotic citizens of the country with which their lot is cast but more patriotic citizens if they can feel a better pride in themselves. Just as there is no national who is so keen a Canadian as the Scotch Canadians, thou they are also proud of the fact that in Scotland is there a home for sentiment and ideals, so there is no reason why the patriotism of the Jews in Canada or any other part of the world, should not be enhanced and strengthened by the success of this experiment which means so much for their ideals and which I believe can be made of such value not only to the little country of Palestine, not only to Jews but a further contribution to the well-being of mankind.” the Colontal Secretary concluded.