The death of D. Van Rees, the vice-chairman of the Permanent Mandates Commission of the League of Nations, will be received with grief in Zionist circles.
Mr. Van Rees was one of the non-Jewish influential friends in the League who had always taken a favorable attitude toward the Jewish interests in Palestine. He was one of the few upon whom the Zionists could depend. He was a stern protector of those parts of the Mandate which provide that Palestine is to become the Jewish National Home.
It was Van Rees who helped the Jews to fight Lord Passfield’s “White Paper.” It was he who made Great Britain feel at every session of the Mandates Commission that Palestine is a mandated territory under the League of Nations, and not a British colony. His death is a great loss to the Zionist movement.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.