First Duty of a Mandatory Power is to Ensure Security of Those Who Come to Country M. Painleve Forme

The first duty of a Mandatory Power is to ensure the security of those who come to the country under its protection, M. Paul Painleve, former Prime Minister, declared at a Zionist meeting held here last night, attended by 1,500 people, at which a resolution was adopted expressing the gratitude of the Jews to the French Government for its continued support of the Jewish aspirations in Palestine.

Then Lord Balfour wrote his famous D claration, it was with much satisfaction that I put my signature to it as France’s representative, M. Painleve went on. Pave confidence in the future, he said. ###ven if the obstacles in the way are great, they will be overcome.

The closing of the doors of Palestine against Jews is an injustice, M. Painleve said, and that must be changed.

M. Justin Godard, former Cabinet Minister, who is President of the France-Palestine Committee, described his impressions of Palestine, when he visited the country soon after the 1929 outbreak, and he assured the Zionists that France had not slackened in her sympathy for the cause of the Jewish National Home.

M. Crandace, a Negro Deputy from Martinique, said that Jews and Negroos were both oppressed races and therefore should support each other.

Deputy Raoul Brandon read out the Cambon Declaration which was issued by the French Government in June 1917, expressing the sympathy of the French Government with Zionist aspirations and said: There is nothing that need be added to that Declaration.

As the Prime Minister who on behalf of France adhered to the Balfour Declaration, M. Painleve said, speaking at a protest meeting held in Paris in November 1930, attended by over 4,000 people under the auspices of the France-Palestine Committee, to express opposition to the Passfield White Paper policy, I declare, that the promise which was made in the Balfour Declaration must be carried out. The Jews have carried out their pledge and have enriched the country, but the Arabs who sold them barren land and now see it prosperous want to take it back by violence. civilisation will not allow that.

In 1926, when he was Minister for War, M. Painleve spoke at a meeting held in Paris to celebrate the first anniversary of the opening of the Hebrew University. The memorable day when I, as Prime Minister and Minister for War, gave my official adherence to the Zionist dream which is about to become a reality is for ever engraved in my memory, he said. Perhaps we in France, he continued, have the right to claim with pride that we were the first to give such adherence. France is perhaps the first country to have proclaimed full liberty of opinion, religious, and philosophic. She has granted to all her children equal rights and privileges. The Jews in France are free citizens in their country. It is my hope that the time is not far distant when Zion will be revived as a new Jewish National Home which will shed lustre over the Western civilisations.