Dr. Wise Believes Zionist Leaders Will Participate in London Parley on Palestine

Zionist leaders will probably participate in the London Conference on Palestine, Dr. Stephen S. Wise predicted today, upon his return from the World Zionist Congress where he was elected “senior member” of the presidium of the Actions Committee. He regretted the fact that Dr. Chaim Weizmann had not been re-elected to the presidency of the World Zionist Organization.

Judge Morris Rothenberg, who was elected a member of the Zionist Actions Committee, said that “the action of the World Zionist Congress can be properly understood and evaluated only against the background of the bitterness felt by the delegates” as a result of British policy in Palestine. “The unwillingness of the Congress to reelect Dr. Weizmann as president of the World Zionist Organization, despite the fact that he continues to enjoy the universal respect of Jews throughout the world, symbolized the feeling of the delegates against the moderate policy pursued by Dr. Weizmann in relation to the Mandatory Power,” he declared. “It should be interpreted as a desire by Zionists everywhere to undertake a more vigorous struggle to prevent the stifling of development in the Jewish National Home.”

Judge Rothenberg, who was also honored at the World Conference of the Jewish National Fund by having a Palestine settlement named after him, reported that the Conference adopted a $40,000,000 goal for 1947 for increased land purchases in Palestine. Mendel Fisher, executive director of the Jewish National Fund, who also was a delegate to the Congress, expressed gratification at the measures taken by the meeting “to protect the integrity” of the J.N.F. He revealed that plans had been presented which would have seriously encroached on the independence of the J.N.F.