J. D. B. News Letter

“I am not speaking for myself alone, but I believe. I am honestly voicing the opinion of the majority of the members of the House of Commons, when I say that they believe that there is no movement which could have done more for the good of the Jewish people than Zionism.” Colonel Josiah Wedgwood, Labor M. P., declared, speaking at a dinner given in his honor at the Jewish National Club.

“Zionism.” he continued. “means more for the self-respect. happiness and comfort of the Jews than any other movement of modern times Unfortunately, we have heard too much of the few jealous suburban cavilers and far too little of the expressions of good will made in private by the majority of the members of the present House of Commons. Zionism is the hope of the Jewish race and of our race too,” Col Wedgwood said. adding that he saw in a joint aim between the Jewish and British peoples the possibility of the well-being of Palestine.

Propagating his idea that Palestine eventually become the seventh dominion within the British Empire. the Labor Member said that it seemed to him that things were not going well with Zionism at least not as well as he could wish and in did need a body of Jews and British to put their heads together to show their determination to make joint cause so that Palestine could prosper. For the last two years the settlement of Jews in Palestine has not developed, and for the last two years the Zionist Organization had found it increasingly difficult to raise funds for the hundred and one objects good objects, on which they spent the money.

It was therefore incumbent upon the Jewish and English peoples, which had the cause of Palestine at heart to see what they could do, he declared.

There had grown up a feeling of antagonism between the Jewish people and the administration in Palestine and that state of tension could be put right. In Kenya the British administration did not quarrel with the British settlers for there the administration had neglected the rights of the natives and Indians in favor of the settlers to a degree unequalled in the history of the expansion of the British Empire. He did not ask that the Palestine government should do for the Jews what the British administration had done for the British settler in Kenya. No one could believe him capable of supporting such a darnand but there was a happy mean, and he wanted the Palestine government to consider the Jewish settler in Palestine to be as important as the English settler in Kenya and to treat the

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Jewish settler in Palestine exactly as if he were British.

He wanted the Government to assist in the development and the settlement of the Jews in Palestine insofar as it did not injure the rights of the native population of that country. They wanted democracy for Palestine, and if they based their government on the ideals of democracy, that was the best cure for racial injustice. They wanted the British administration in Palestine to look on the Jew as a friend and not as a nuisance.

The Seventh (Palestine) Dominion League was out to unite the Jewish and British families, and advocated the grant of self-governing institutions to Palestine when the Mandate ceases, Col. Wedgwood, who is the organizer of the League, declared.

It did not advocate the abolition of the Mandate, but when the Mandatory Power had established a home for the Jews in Palestine and developed self-governing institutions in that country without interfering with race, creed or caste, its work would be done, and then the Jews and Arabs in the country would have to decide whether they wanted to be connected with the British Empire or to be independent. The work of the League was to create such a situation in Palestine that when the Mandate ceases, Jew and Arab would decide to ask for a continuation of the connection with the British Empire with the status of a self-governing Dominion.

In his view, the Jewish Home would not be properly established and the job of the Mandatory Power not accomplished, until there were a majority of Jews in Palestine. The danger to Zionism was that the Government might grant self-government to Palestine before there were sufficient Jews there, and he did not want the Mandate to come to an end until both sections of the population, Jew and Arab, decided that they wanted self-government for Palestine. The status of a Dominion meant that a country was independent and yet had the protection of the British fleet, he added.

They did not seek to end the Mandate, Colonel Wedgwood concluded. They did not seek to force any government on an unwilling people. The Seventh Dominion League wanted to build up Palestine as a friendly trinity of peoples, English, Jew and Arab, who would live together in peace and without trampling upon each other’s rights, which will have self-government and will come forth as a seventh Dominion to spread the doctrine of freedom, justice and brotherly love, which were the traditions of the Jews and the British, Col. Wedgwood concluded.