Dr. Weizmann’s Name is Truly Great Lord Reading Says Presiding at Jewish Agency Dinner in Honour of

Dr. Weizmann’s name is truly great, Lord Reading said, when he presided to-night at the dinner given by the British Section of the Jewish Agency in honour of Dr. Ch. Weizmann, former President of the Jewish Agency.

It is fame, Lord Reading went on, for its achievements in a cause with which he will always be identified. To speak of the Jewish National Home in Palestine is to present forthwith his remarkable personality. From its inception and for about thirteen years he has been the chief exponent of the Zionist cause and the principal figure in the development of the Jewish settlement in the sacred land of history.

Messages were received from the Prime Minister, Mr. Ramsav MacDonald, Mr. Stanley Baldwin, leader of the Conservative Party, and Lord President of the Council, Sir Herbert Samuel, leader of the Liberal Party and Home Secretary, Mr. Lloyd George, Mr. Arthur Henderson, leader of the Labour Party, General Smuts, the present Lord Balfour, brother of the author of the Balfour Declaration, Chief Rabbi Hook of Palestine, Mr. Felix M. Warburg, Dr. Cyrus Adler, Professor S. Alexander, O.R., the famous philosopher, Herr Oscar Wassermann, from the Zionist Organisation of America, the South African Zionist Federation, Perr Kurt Blumenfeld, Chairman of the German Zionist Federation, Dr. Arlossoroff, Dr. Berkson, Dr. Hexter, Dr. Senator and Mr. Emanuel Neuman, members of the Jewish Agency Executive.

Mr. Nahum Sokolov, the President of the Jewish Agency, and Dr. Selig Brodetsky and Mr. Berl Locker, members of the Jewish Agency Executive, were present, and Mr. Nahum Sokolov was one of the speakers, the others being Mr. J. H. Thomas, the Secretary of State for the Dominions, Dr. Amery, former Secretary of State for the Colonies and Dominlons, Major Elliot, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, and Mr. Simon Marks.

Miss Nettie Adler, Sir Louis Baron, Rear Admiral Promley, Sir John Brooks, Sir Montague Burton, Sir Julian Cahn (who brought a party), Mr. Lionel Cohen, R. C., Lord Conway, Mr. M. C. Curry, M.P., Mr. R. D. Denman, M. P., Mrs. Dugdale Dr. and Mrs. M. D. Eder, Viscount and Viscountess Erleigh, Captain R. T. Evans, M.P., Mr. O. D. d’Avigdor Goldsaid, Mr. William Graham, former President of the Board of Trade in the Labour Government, Sir Philip Hartog, Mr. H. Holdsworth, M.P., Major Daniel Hopkin, Captain Hudson, M.P., Sir Samuel Instone, Mr. Barnett Janner, M.P., Sir George Jones, M.P., Commander Kenworthy, Colonel F. H. Kisch, Mr. Neville Laski, K.C., Sir George Leon, Lieut.-Colonel J. H. Levey, Sir Albert Levy, Sir George Lewish, the Countess of Limerick, Lady Lyons, Miss Rose Macauley, Lieut.-General Sir George MacDonogh, Mr. Malcolm MacDonald, M.P., Sir Harry McGowan, Lady Melchett, Sir Boyd Merriman, Colonel Neinertzhagen, Mr. Naamani, Professor Namier, Major H. L. Nathan, M.P., Mr. H. W. Nevinson, Dr. W. J. O’Donovan, M.P., Mr. F. N. Palmer, M.P., Miss F. Rathbone, M.P., Mr. Harry Sacher, Mr. Schalit, Sir John Shuckburgh, Sir Meyer Spielman, Mr. Ben Tillet, and Mr. Gustave Tuck were among the guests.

Lady Erleigh announced that £9,000 had been subscribed before the dinner to the Keren Hayesod.

Whatever differences there may be, there can be none regarding Dr. Weizmann’s personal merit, Lord Reading continued his speech. By his talent, his devotion, and his capacity for willing friendships he has endeared himself, he said, to all, from statesmen to people.

The letter that has been read from the Prime Minister always one in sympathy for the Jewish people – Lord Reading went on, is indicative of that regard. That letter and the presence of the distinguished guests together with representative members of our community from different parts of the world mark a very notable tribute to the man, to the true gentleman as we know him. In spite of his modesty he must admit that this testimony to the place which he has gained among us is a demonstration of which he may be proud. I speak with greater certainty when I say that his gracious lady whom we are delighted to see here will assuredly treasure the memory of this evening and with justifiable pride.

WHO SHALL ESTIMATE GOLDEN PRIZES IN FIELD OF CHEMISTRY DR. WEIZMANN WOULD HAVE WON HAD HE NOT CHOSEN THORNY PATH OF LEADER OF JEWISH MOVEMENT FOR PALESTINE

Dr. Weizmann is so identified with Palestine and his achievements are so well known, Lord Reading said, that these tend to submerge his other claims to distinction. Educated at various universities, he came nearly thirty years ago to this country, equipped with culture and scientific knowledge, especially of chemistry. During the war he was privileged to prove his love of his adopted country by his excellent work as Director of the Admiralty Laboratories. He invented a chemical process which proved of the highest importance in those critical years, and he gave it and directed it for the benefit of England.

Who shall estimate his golden prizes in the field of chemistry or otherwise had he not chosen the thorny path of leader of the Jewish movement for Palestine? Who will deny that he could have attained material results which would have ensured him comfort and ease? But he willed otherwise. Heart and soul were aflame for Zionism, to which he had determined to devote himself. He had been a member from the first of the Zionist Organisation founded by Dr. Theodore Herzl.

Dr. Weizmann was always in favour of developing the practical as well as the political side of Zionism, Lord Reading pursued. By this method he had managed to achieve success on behalf of the Jews in Palestine. Soon after his arrival in this country, the close contact he had made with eminent statesmen, notably Mr. Lloyd George and the late Lord Balfour, were used as an opportunity to win friends to the Zionist cause. His earnestness, his sincerity, his devotion and his personal charm were his powerful instruments of persuasion. Eventually, he and other friends in England brought about the issue in 1917 of the famous Balfour Declaration. From this time, his sole preoccupation, in which he never spared himself, and during which time he travelled thousands of miles, was to plead for support of the Zionist cause. And he has solid achievements to his credit.

NO AN IN PUBLIC LIFE CAN ESCAPE CRITICISM: SOME THINK THEY HAVE BETTER WAY OTHERS THEY COULD ADVANCE MORE RAPIDLY AND OTHERS THEY COULD BUILD MORE SURELY: BUT DR. WEIZMANN HAS PURSUED HIS CAUSE CONSCIOUS OF HIS RESPONSIBILITY

Now, no man in public life, Lord Reading said, can escape criticism. Some think they know better ways. Others think they could advance more rapidly. Yet others; think they could build more surely. These are views not entirely unknown in the wider political sphere. But Dr. Weizmann has pursued his course being conscious of the responsibility. He has surmounted difficulties because he was guided and controlled by his understanding and sympathetic insight and because he was stimulated by his high ideals.

The great moral force stored in this movement enables it to overcome obstacles apparently unsurmountable. Those who have settled in Palestine have had their trials, and in the one political reference I am going to make to night I say that they are entitled under the aegis of the British Government to security.

Dr. Weizmann has never faltered. When others were pessimistic he remained optimistic. He never lost heart. He fought on, lighted on his way and warmed by the flaming though of devotion to the cause. He has the reward of the consciousness of having selected the nobler part, that of having obeyed the spiritual force within him, and the gratification of having dedicated all his capacity of service to a great historic people scattered throughout the world. Not the least of his services have been the representations to and the discussions with the British and Palestinian Governments, and his ardour and skill in advocacy of the cause.

PATH OF MANDATORY POWER NOT ALWAYS SMOOTH LORD READING SAYS: IT IS DIRECTED BY HUMAN AGENCY AND LIABLE TO ERROR: BUT WHATEVER THE CRITICISM BALFOUR DECLARATION WILL ALWAYS BE GRATEFULLY REMEMBERED AND BRITISH TREATMENT OF JEWS IN THIS COUNTRY BE ALWAYS TRIBUTE TO BRITISH JUSTICE AND FAIR PLAY

The path of the Mandatory Power is not always smooth, Lord Reading went on. It is directed by human agency and is given satisfaction, but whatever the criticism, however sharp the line of difference the famous Balfour Declaration will always be gratefully remembered, and the British people in their treatment of the Jews in this country will always constitute a great tribute to the British love of justice, liberty and fair play.

I rejoice, Lord Reading concluded, that this occasion has been vouchsafed to me of presiding at this memorable banquet and proposing this toast. Men of commanding positions and of another faith have come here to bear their testimony of admiration of the man we delight to honour, to pay their tribute to him who has given the best in him for the love of his own people, and to the glory of humanity, which when all is said is the one all-uniting race.

A VERY REMARKABLE MAN MR. AMERY SAYS: IF EVER THERE WAS AN IDEALISTIC MOVEMENT IT WAS THIS DREAM OF CREATING FOR SCATTERED JEWS OF WORLD A CENTRE OF CULTURE AND INSPIRATION A NATIONAL HOME

We are honouring to-night a very remarkable man, Mr. Amery said, scientist, statesman, diplomatist, one whom few can rival and one whom none in history, I believe, has ever equalled as a sturdy and persuasive beggar, but what we are honouring above all is a man who has dedicated his great gifts of absolute and unswerving single-mindedness to the service of a purely ideal aim.

If ever there was an idealistic movement, he went on, it was this dream of creating for the scattered Jews of the world a centre of culture and inspiration, a national home of their very own. For its site its advocates selected a small derelict and stony patch of ground, obviously without any conceivable merit for their purpose except one: It was the land of their forefathers, a land in which every town and hamlet, every hill and stream was hallowed by Holy Writ enshrined in the most enduring of tradition. Such a movement is surely a welcome thing in a world given over to the worship of the material, a worship whose most fanatical expression is found in the Russia of to-day; in the Bolshevist dream to which Zionism is the very antithesis. In that difference of aim and outlook we of the British Empire can surely look upon Zionism as something in its essence akin to our own conception of the Empire as fundamentally the embodiment of a moral purpose, of a spiritual ideal, and indeed that conception of ours has always been profoundly affected by the Biblical tradition in which we of this nation have been steeped.

BRITAIN PLEDGED ITSELF FOR PRACTICAL REASONS TO SUPPORT JEWISH NATIONAL HOME: OUR ONLY POSSIBLE ALLIES IN MEDITERRANEAN LANDS ARE JEWS: WE MUST KEEP UNDEVIATING FAITH WITH JEWS AND WIN ARAB POPULATION TO CONCEPTION OF COMMON LOCAL PATRIOTISM IN WHICH JEWS AND ARABS CAN SHARE

At a critical time in England’s history, Mr. Amery recalled, Britain pledged itself to support the National Home. There were practical reasons for the promotion of this ideal, be remarked. I am not one of those who believe that the British Empire has passed its zenith or is ready for dissolution. On the contrary, I believe in new and hitherto untried forms, under systems of novel and more flexible constitutional and economic relationships it is destined to grow not only in internal cohesion but in external influence. No-where is that growth of influence more important to us and more likely to be fruitful of welfare to mankind than in those ancient lands, once the cradle of civilisation, between the Mediterranean and India. In that growth, Palestine by virtue of its position is the natural keypoint, strategically, commercially and spiritually, but it can only fulfil that function if in every one of those assets all its latent possibilities are developed. In that task our only possible allies are the Jews, for they are the big people willing to give to it their money, their brains and their hearts.

Speaking of the cleavage between Jews and Arabs in Palestine, Mr. Amery said that the things essential to Britain’s success in that country are – we must keep faith and undeviating faith with the Jews and – here we look to the Jews to help us – we must work with patience and firm endeavour to promote the well-being of the Arab population, and to win it to the conception of a common local patriotism in which Jews and Arabs can share with equal pride and advantage. Last but not least, we must have faith in ourselves.

GENERATIONS YET UNBORN WILL HONOUR YOU MR. THOMAS TELLS DR. WEIZMANN: YOU ARE GOING THROUGH PERIOD TO WHICH ALL MARTYRS ARE SUBJECT: THOSE OF US ASSEMBLED HERE KNOW YOUR WORTH

This is in many respects a unique gathering, Mr. Thomas began. It is usually left to a person to die for people to say what they think of him. They send flowers, and some of them indicate their feelings in a postscript which suggests “Thank God, I have got this opportunity”.

Turning to Dr. Weizmann, Mr. Thomas said: You are in the very happy position of being honoured not only while you live, but you are honoured not only by those present here but by millions of people in all parts of the world where you have gone, who love and respect you. It is quite true, as Lord Reading said, that a gathering of scientists could do honour to you. It is also quite true that if there was a meeting of those responsible for the events of 1914-1918 they would be entitled to do honour to all you did for the great Allied cause. Those of us, and particularly those of us who are not of your faith, can never forget the work you did for the Allied cause.

But this gathering, he went on, honours you for your work for the Zionist movement. You never apologise for being a Jew, and why should you? You never excused yourself, or were ashamed of your nationality. You had no reason to be. You said clearly and definitely: I’m not only a Jew. I’m not only a Zionist, but I believe the greatest service I can render to my people is to obtain for them at last a home. Will anyone deny that was not a great ideal? Would anyone deny that the man who is prepared to give his wealth, his love, his life for that cause is not worthy to be honoured?

Perhaps more than any other speaker to-night, Mr. Thomas said, I can sympathise with you. I have fought a great fight for a people I love better than anything in life, for whom I gave my best years. Often misunderstood, often abused and criticised, often unfairly judged, but in spite of the criticism, in spite of the hard word, like you I still love them and want them to prosper. Those of us assembled here know your worth and know your work. We know perfectly well that you are going through the period to which all martyrs are subject.

I was once asked when conducting the affairs of the Colonial Office, Mr. Thomas told the gathering, whether I was pro-Jew or pro-Arab. The answer I gave was that I was pro-Palestine. Because I believed and believe now that the establishment of Palestine as a Jewish home does not necessarily mean any anti-Arab feeling. I believed then, as I believe now, that the genius of your race, your industry, your love and determination need not necessarily, and indeed should not and will not injure the Arab cause. I believe your ideal is not hostility, but rather that you desire to work together.

I say to you, Dr. Weizmann, he concluded, not only as a member of the National Government, but as a member of the Labour Party of which they may take the label from me, but not the spirit – thank you for what you have done. You have set us a noble example. You have repudiated personal consideration, you have given of your best, you have given your life to the great cause of a great people and a great ideal. Jewry will remember you. The Zionist movement is stronger because of your connection with it. Generations yet unborn will live to honour and revere the name of Dr. Weizmann.

APART FROM HIS WORK FOR JEWISH NATIONAL HOME IN PALESTINE WHICH COMMANDS ADMIRATION OF ALL WHO KNOW HIM PRIME MINISTER WRITES HIS PERSONAL FRIENDSHIP IS HIGHLY VALUED BY ALL WHO HAVE COME INTO CONTACT WITH HIM

I should be very glad, the Prime Minister, Mr. J. Ramsay MacDonald, wrote in his message, if you would allow me to associate myself with those who are meeting together this evening to do honour to Dr. Weizmann. Apart from his work for the cause of the Jewish National Home in Palestine, which sets an example of practical idealism and commands the admiration of all who know him, his own personal friendship is highly valued by all who have come into contact with him. I hope you are to have a pleasant evening from which your distinguished guest will derive strength and cheer.

I am glad, Mr. Baldwin wrote, to have an opportunity, if only by sending this letter, of paying my tribute of esteem to Dr. Weizmann, who, with the romantic realism of his race, has by his work for the Jewish National Home in Palestine, shown what can be done with energy, imagination and ideals.

It is not only in the sphere of nation-building that Dr. Weizmann has shown his remarkable capacities, Mr. Baldwin added. In a very different sphere, far from the turmoil of human emotions, he has left an abiding mark. All of you know that Dr. Weizmann is a most distinguished scientist, who rendered very valuable scientific services to the British Government and the Nation during the War. I should be grateful if you would convey to Dr. Weizmann my sincere good wishes for the future.

I should have liked to be present to do honour to one of the greatest men who emerged out of the World War, Mr. Lloyd George, who is now in India, cabled to the gathering. His distinguished services both to Israel and to the British Empire constitute an indelible part of history.

LOOKING BACK OVER LAST SIXTEEN YEARS IT SEEMS MARVELLOUS HOW MUCH HAS BEEN ACHIEVED SIR HERBERT SAMUEL WRITES: JEWISH ASPIRATIONS HAVE BEEN IN LARGE DEGREE FULFILLED AND DIFFICULT TASK OF FOUNDING NATIONAL HOME FOR JEWS IN PALESTINE WITHOUT INJUSTICE AGAINST PEOPLE ALREADY INHABITING LAND WELL ON WAY TO ACCOMPLISHMENT

I greatly regret that an engagement of a public character previously made renders it impossible for me to be present, Sir Herbert Samuel wrote. Otherwise, he went on, I should not have failed to have been with you in order to join in the tribute of respect and gratitude to the leader who, for many years, has served the highest interests of the Jewish people with so much devotion and Zeal. And also with so much success.

Looking back over the last sixteen years, the period during which I have been closely acquainted with Dr. Weizmann and his work, Sir Herbert proceeded, it seems marvellous how much has been accomplished. At last the aspirations, which have long been latent in the Jewish heart, have been in large degree fulfilled. The difficult task of founding a National Home for the Jews in Palestine, without committing injustice or oppression against the people already inhabiting the land, but rather with results that shall be to their benefit, has been advanced well on the way to accomplishment. In order to supervise and aid that enterprise there has been brought into being, for the first time in history, a permanent organisation, representing the whole of the scattered members of the Jewish race. Compared with these achievements, the limitations, the qualifications, the points of failure, fade into insignificance. Dr. Weizmann’s name will live in history as that of a great constructive statesman. You are right to do him honour.

I welcome this opportunity to pay my tribute of admiration for the distinguished services so generously given to the cause of the Jewish National Home by Dr. Weizmann, Mr. Arthur Henderson telegraphed.

General Smuts cabled from South Africa: I heartily join with you in honouring Dr. Weizmann for his imperishable services to the Zionist cause. South Africans are looking forward keenly to his forthcoming visit.

I still retain the liveliest interest in the success of my brother’s Zionist policy, Lord Balfour wrote, and the fullest appreciation of the selfless labours which you have devoted to its practical realisation.

My own feeling towards Dr. Weizmann is not only one of great admiration for his public work and his leadership, Professor Alexander wrote, but of lively personal affection for him. I am the more regretful at not being present at the dinner.

Chief Rabbi Kook sent “my heartfelt greeting from the Holy Land to Dr. Weizmann”.

MR. WARBURG’S REGRET THAT SOME OF DR. WEIZMANN’S FOLLOWERS HAVE PERMITTED HIM TO LAY DOWN HIS GENERALSHIP WHICH IS NEEDED TO-DAY AS MUCH AS EVER

I wish I might be with you at your gathering in recognition of the extraordinary services of that splendid friend of Palestine, but, unfortunately, I am not able to do so, Mr. Felix Warburg, wrote from America.

Dr. Weizmann knows how deeply and warmly I appreciate what he has done for Palestine, Mr. Warburg went on. His unselfish services are unequalled, and the skill and tact which he has shown in his efforts to work out the different problems of that mysteriously beautiful country have earned for him the respect of the people with whom he has been brought into contact. For us, he has not only become a successful advocate for his cause, but a dear, esteemed friend as well, and together with many others we have regretted deeply that some of his followers have permitted him to lay down his generalship, which is needed to-day as much as ever.

But these facts are perhaps not what your gathering to-day wishes to consider, Mr. Warburg concluded, so let me simply join the friends of Dr. Weizmann in assuring him that whatever he has done of extraordinary value will never be forgotten by those who have been with him in the trenches.

Beside Baron Edmond de Rothschild, the father of Jewish settlement, no one deserves like Dr. Chaim Weizmann the gratitude of every Jew of our time for whom Judaism and its honour have any meaning, Herr Oscar Wassermann wrote from Berlin, because it is due to Weizmann’s endeavour, to his heart and his intellect alone, that the Jewish work for Palestine, at one time the exclusive pre-occupation of one party, has grown into the cause of Jewry as a whole, and indeed of the whole world.

The greatness of the task and the greatness of the man are still not recognised in certain Jewish circles, and unfortunately the thanks which are his due are frequently denied him. The anxieties of the times are as much responsible for this as is the lack of understanding. But I do not doubt that recognition will grow, and that future generations will number our friend among the greatest and most deserving Jews of all times.

In bearing witness before him and the world that ingratitude is not a Jewish attribute, although unfortunately it frequently occurs among Jews as among non-Jews, the Banqueting Committee are accomplishing a duty on the doing of which I congratulate them.

MR. SOKOLOV RECALLS IN HERZL’S PROPHETIC IMAGINATION THERE WAS BRITISH MANDATE OVER PALESTINE LONG BEFORE MANDATE BECAME A FACT: THANKS LORD READING AND ALL WHO CAME TO HONOUR OUR HIGHLY RESPECTED AND EXCELLENT LEADER DR. WEIZMANN

I am speaking in the name both of the Zionist Organisation and the Jewish Agency, Mr. Sokolov began. The Zionist Organisation looked to Great Britain for help and guidance a long time before the War, he went on. In Herzl’s prophetic imagination there was a British Mandate over Palestine, like a Platonic Idea, long before the Mandate became a fact. And the Jewish Agency is entirely a product of the principle of co-operation with Great Britain, to the effect that the burden should not be left to be borne by the Zionist Organisation alone but must be shared by the whole Jewish people, united in a brotherhood of common aim, faith and moral integrity for the rebuilding of our National Home in accordance with the Mandate.

In the name, then, of these two bodies, I have the honour, Mr. Sokolov said, to give our Chairman, Lord Reading, their tribute – heart’s devotion. I couple with his name the names of Mr. Amery, Mr. J. H. Thomas, Major Walter Elliot, and all those distinguished guests who meet here this evening to honour our highly respected and excellent leader, Dr. Chaim Weizmann. Allow me to tell you how gratefully we appreciate this manifestation of lofty feelings. Your friendship fortifies us for duty and sacrifice; it strengthens our loyalty; it directs us in our tremendous difficulties. For this we owe you a lasting debt of gratitude.

May the interests of Zionism and of Great Britain never be thought distinct, Mr. Sokolov concluded, after paying a tribute to Lord Reading’s contributions to British statesmanship. May they never be thought to contrast with the real interests of the Arab people, whose welfare and progress are of great value to all us! May England never forget the Bible which has inspired her divines, heroes, legislators, and poets! May the seeds of dissension, disseminated by prejudice and ignorance, never find lasting growth in the sacred soil of Palestine. May the realisation of the mandate make greater progress than it has hitherto made!.

PALESTINE EMERGENCY FUND NOT ONLY REPAIRED DAMAGE BUT CONSIDERABLE AMOUNT REMAINS OVER MR. MARKS REPORTS: KEREN HAYESOD HAS SPENT WELL OVER FOUR MILLION POUNDS IN PALESTINE HOPE INTENSIVE CAMPAIGN NOW IN COUNTRIES STILL ON GOLD STANDARD WILL RESULT FOR FIRST TIME IN EXCEEDING ESTIMATED INCOME

It is an open secret, Mr. Simon Marks said, that at moments of great stress in the progress of our movement, Lord Reading’s services have never been requisitioned in vain. His co-operation with our leaders during most critical periods, entitles him to the gratitude of the Jewish people. As one who co-operated with him in the Palestine Emergency Fund Committee as a trustee of that fund, I want to take this first public opportunity of thanking him for the eminent service which he performed during those critical months. He must derive satisfaction in knowing that not only was the damage repaired by the Emergency Fund (which resulted in about £600,000), but there remains a considerable sum of money over, which is destined to help to build up the National Home by a scheme which we hope will settle, in the course of time, a large number of independent families on orange-growing soil in Palestine. When the full story of the work of the Emergency Fund is told, I feel sure he will regard his association with it as not the least valuable memory in a life which has been so completely at the service of others and particularly of this great Empire, of which he is so great a citizen.

During the period of its existence, Mr. Marks went on, the Keren Hayesod has collected and spent in Erstz Israel well over £4,000,000. It provides for immigration, colonisation, health, and education of the Jewish inhabitants.

Unfortunately, he said, the income in the last two or three years, instead of increasing, as was fondly hoped, by the creation of the world Jewish Agency, has been reduced to such an extent that essential services have had to be cut to the bone, which means a great deal of suffering and privation on the part of the Jewish settlers. The financial crisis which has overwhelmed the world has not been without its influence upon our financial position. Last year our income dwindled to £258,000, as against an average income of the Keren Hayesod in the preceding five years of about £470,000. The cuts, therefore, in our work have had to be, of necessity, of a severe, if not catastrophic nature, and we owe a debt of deep gratitude to our pioneers in Palestine for the heroic and valiant efforts they are making in holding the position at so great a sacrifice.

A minimum sum of about £250,000 is the amount necessary to keep the structure of our work together pending better times, for which we must strive if we are to maintain that which has been built up with so much effort, so much privation, and so much self-sacrifice.

Pointing out that sterling is still the medium of exchange in Palestine, Mr. Marks expressed his belief that with an intensive campaign in America, South Africa and other countries still on the gold standard, our estimated income will, for the first time, be exceeded.

We are grateful to Dr. Weizmann, Mr. Marks added, concluding with a tribute to Lady Erleigh, “a worthy daughter of a great and distinguished father, whose loss we deplore so grievously”, for accepting the invitation to proceed to South Africa on behalf of the Fund. Once again the Jewish people are indebted to him for another great and noble act, which may mean the turning point for the further material progress of the Jewish National Home, to which his life has been dedicated, he said.

MOVEMENT STANDS AT PARTING OF WAYS DR. WEIZMANN SAYS: BUT IN SPITE OF DIFFICULTIES MOVEMENT WHICH BROUGHT US HERE REMAINS STRONGEST CONSTRUCTIVE FORCE IN JUDAISM

The movement stands to-day, as once before, more than twenty-five years ago, at the parting of the ways, Dr. Weizmann said in his reply to the speeches. The world is passing through a time of great difficulty and stress, comparable only to the period of the Great War, but without the high hopes for the future which sustained humanity as that War drew to a close. But in spite of the difficulties, I venture to think that we can still say that the movement which has brought us together to-night remains the strongest constructive force in Judaism; in the light of what is happening all around us, it is perhaps less difficult than it might otherwise be to assess the moral values of the movement, and to indicate the role which it is likely to be called upon to play in the near future.

For the past twenty years, Dr. Weizmann said, proceeding to a survey of Jewish life, the position of the Jews in Russia has been growing more and more precarious. At the moment the use of the term “Community” is hardly justified, for Russian Jewry, that inexhaustible reservoir from which Jewishness once flowed in a rich stream into the Communities of the West is fast becoming de-Judaised. The economic readjustment brought about by the Bolshevist revolution, far from improving the lot of the Jews, has thrown millions of Jewish lives out of gear; for millions of Jews no place could be found in the newly-created system of the Soviets. I am not exaggerating when I say that the majority of Russia’s three million Jewish subjects are declassed, economically, physically and spiritually. There is no room for the trader, the middle-man, the luftmensch within the framework of modern life in Russia. In the younger generation a process of adaptation is beginning. Some, we are told, have succeeded more or less in adapting themselves to the new way of life, but they have done so at the cost of their Jewish traditions. It is still doubtful whether any of the schemes designed to improve the conditions of Russo-Jewish life will prove successful; it is certain that, at best, they can be no more than palliatives. They leave the root of the problem still untouched. Russian Jewry affords a tragic example of a Jewish Community in process of dissolution. Much the some thing, Dr. Weizmann added, is happening in the other East European Jewish Communities – in Poland, Roumania, Czecho-Slovakia.

In America, the world’s second greatest centre of Jewish population, Dr. Weizmann went on, the recent economic crisis has hit the Jews doubly hard, since economically the Jews of America have never been connected with fundamentals, either with the land or the principal industries. Their domain was always the economic No-Man’s Land between the basic undertakings. The fortunes of the Jews in America have thus been fluctuating, not securely established, and so they were swept away before the first onslaught of the storm. Many Jewish institutions, built up in America in the period of prosperity, with all the lavishness characteristic of the “get rich quick” era are at present going begging. Unemployment is rampant, and the American Jews, usually so quick to come to the rescue of their less fortunate brethren in Europe, are now unable to help themselves. The American Community finds itself faced with something approaching an economic boycott – slow, silent, but none the less irresistible. As long as America lived in opulence, there was plenty of room for the Jew as well; but now that times are hard, the American comes first, and the Jew finds all the outlets for his energy and will to work closing against him.

If it were possible to summarise in one sentence the position of Jewry to-day, Dr. Weizmann went on, I would be tempted to put it thus: The Jews of the world are penned up in their respective countries without any possibility of physical escape. Many Jews, therefore, seek a moral escape in non-Jewish contacts and interests, and this naturally strengthens the already powerful centrifugal forces tending towards the final break-up of Jewish life as a whole.

But it would be a grave misinterpretation of Jewish history for us to take account of destructive tendencies only, without having regard to the forces of resistance and defence which Jewry has always opposed to such catastrophes, even when they have threatened to overwhelm it, as they have done from time to time in the past. Even when the majority of the Jewish Community seemed to be overpowered, either by physical misfortune or by moral or political forces alienating Jews from their ancient faith and traditions, there has always remained a minority which steadfastly refused to submit to the process of assimilation and dissolution, and which continued to seek, struggling heroically against heavy odds, ways and means of maintaining its identity and expressing it.

IN THE MIDST OF ALL THIS THERE IS LITTLE PALESTINE

In the midst of all this, Dr. Weizmann said, there is little Palestine, which entered upon its post-war career in 1918, full of hope and confidence. For us the Balfour Declaration heralded a new era; we felt that for the first time the sympathies of all civilised humanity were with us. We hoped to build quickly, because of those to whom sheer physical roommeant life. And after ten years of ardent and sustained endeavour we find ourselves still only on the threshhold of the problem, and beset by all those difficulties and disappointments which inevitably flow from the fundamental discrepancy between what it is desirable to achieve, and what it may be possible to achieve under a given set of conditions.

Yet in these ten years that lie behind us, we have achieved something in Palestine, of which we have no need to be ashamed. I think we Jews have often too little idea of what it means to build up a country, a people, from the very foundations. In the Galuth, our life has always been a super-structure imposed upon an alien foundation; but in Palestine we have to build, in material things as in spiritual, from the ground up. And we have to learn by trial and error; there is no other way. But our colonisation in Palestine compares not unfavourably with similar work done by other nations of infinitely greater experience and under more encouraging circumstances. To the quality of our settlers and of their work we have ample and authoritative testimony, And over and above agricultural settlement, we have created in Palestine all the essentials of nationhood. The organism is not yet fully grown, but the embryo is complete. We have our language, our land, our peasants, and work-people, our intellectuals; from the smallest cottage or farm right up to the Hebrew University everything is our own achievement. By what that achievement is and by what it is to be we shall be judged in the eyes of the world.

But what of the future? Dr. Weizmann asked. This Palestine, which is almost the only hope of survival that the world holds out to the Jewish people is a small country, neglected, barren, desolate, and it cannot absorb enough new arrivals to do anything appreciable to lessen the ever-growing pressure in the Diaspora.

Well, I agree, Dr. Weizmann said, that no one imagines or ever did imagine that all the 15 millions of Jews in the world would be able to establish themselves in Palestine. Exactly what proportion may eventually do so it would be venturesome on my part to try and estimate. Unbiassed technical experts have given it as their considered opinion that Palestine could absorb approximately 50,000 new agricultural settlers and their families in the next 25 years, without in any way interfering with the legitimate interests of the Arab population. That is an experts’ estimate, and presumably does not err on the side of optimism. So that by the end of twenty-five years we might have a further 50,000 Jewish families settled on the land in Palestine, say a population of 250,000, creating ancillary occupations for at least as many more. And thus to deliver 100,000 Jewish families, roughly half-a-million people, from intolerable conditions, and to give them a fair chance to make good is surely a task worth attempting, even if it is not a complete solution to the Jewish problem.

But beyond that purely arbitrary twenty-five year limit, who would dare to prophecy? With a largely increased Jewish population, firmly established, self-supporting and prosperous, with the inevitable development of Palestine’s vast hinterland, with the new port at Haifa, the pipe-line from Mosul, the new railway from Baghdad, the new air routes, the exploitation of the Dead Sea minerals, and the urban development consequent upon all this, he would be a bold man who would presume to set any precise limit to Palestine’s eventual absorptive capacity. So that even if our achievements in Palestine up to the present has been from a material point of view too small to effect much improvement in Jewish conditions outside Palestine, it is yet a beginning whose potentialities are certainly very great.

WE EXPECT AND BALFOUR DECLARATION GAVE US RIGHT TO EXPECT MANDATORY WOULD DO MORE IN PALESTINE THAN HOLD RING WHILE TWO OPPOSING FACTIONS FIGHT OUT THEIR DIFFERENCES

But the development of those potentialities presupposes three things, Dr. Weizmann concluded – first, the active support and co-operation of the Mandatory Power. Without that we are hampered at every turn. We expect and the Mandate and the Balfour Declaration gave us a right to expect that the Mandatory would do more in Palestine than merely hold the ring while two opposing factions fought out their differences to a finish. We ask for sympathetic understanding and general goodwill, such as Great Britain has seldom failed to give weaker peoples faced with tasks that tax their courage and strength to the utmost. And we are confident that we shall not ask in vain. In spite of the many disappointments which recent years have brought us, we still believe in the community of interest between the Mandatory power and the builders of the Jewish National Home. And in the readjustment which is even now taking place within the British Empire, Palestine, owing to its peculiar geographical position and its unique appeal to civilised humanity, is likely to assume a place of even greater importance than in the past.

The second pre-requisite is an understanding between ourselves and the Arabs of Palestine based on mutual respect and an appreciation on both sides of the realities of the situation. So far as we are concerned, we have never had any intention of building up a national home at anyone else’s expense. There are 700,000 Arabs (possibly more) in Palestine. They have been there for more than a thousand years. Jerusalem is holy to them – a place of pilgrimage and worship. But it is not a centre of national aspirations for all Arab peoples in the same sense in which it is a centre for the Jewish people scattered all over the world. From the Euphrates down to the Yemen there is a series of Arab national homes. But we, the Jews, claim our right to build our national home in this one small strip of territory on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean; to build it without interfering in any way with the civil, political, or religious rights of the Arabs in Palestine, but also without suffering any interference from the Arabs, either from those in Palestine or from those outside it. Personally I would be willing to seek an understanding with the Palestine Arabs on the basis of parity between the two races, whose destiny it is to live side by side in a common Home, though I rather doubt whether that principle would meet with any very cordial reception at the moment, either from Arabs or from Jews. But I am convinced that the present situation in Palestine is merely a passing phase and that time will not fail to remedy it.

The third indispensable prerequisite for the full development of Palestine and the Jewish National Home is that we, Zionists, should keep our faith unshaken in these difficult times. Palestine is not the solution of all the problems which face Jewry, but it can and does offer to the whole Jewish people gifts of inestimable value, of which, perhaps, the greatest is the consciousness that in Palestine and ever-increasing number of Jews have a possibility of living normal, healthy, productive lives as a free people, dwelling – as of right and not on sufferance – in the land of their fathers; practising their own religion, speaking their own language, observing their own ancient customs and way of life, in the noblest and best sense of the word, a Nation.