Labor Zionists Sail for Prague Congress ‘sober with Victory’

Declaring that they were going to the 18th World Zionist Congress at Prague without being tied to any party dogma and that they were genuinely anxious for coalition with all the constructive forces in Zionism, the Poale Zion-Zeire Zion delegation of thirteen prominent leaders of the American Zionist Laborite movement, sailed on the Aquitania, Saturday.

Before they sailed, they were the guests of honor at a reception and farewell evening on the Aquitania, Friday evening.

“We are going to the 18th Congress as a part of the large world delegation of Labor Zionists,” they declared in a statement issued before they sailed. “In accordance with the latest reports our delegates will number 135 out of the total of 283, just a little short of a majority. Together with a number of General Zionists supporting our policies in Zionism, we shall form a majority of the Congress. We are not drunk with victory. On the contrary, we feel our responsibility towards the Zionist movement in general, and towards the building up of Palestine in particular.

“The forthcoming 18th Zionist Congress has many difficult problems to solve. The political situation, though improved since the last Congress, is very far from satisfactory. As a matter of fact, we were never satisfied with the political situation created by the mandatory power. We fought the Passfield White Paper, the Simpson report, the various restrictions against organized Jewish immigration. We have opposed the French Report, and we consider its publication, on the eve of the Congress, as a danger signal. We expect the Congress to ###rt the answer given by the Jewish Agency some time ago. There are other demands which the Congress is going to launch against the mandatory power. The Congress will have to consider the problem of bringing to the League of Nations, and to the forum of international public opinion, the situation created in Germany, and the possibility that Palestine absorb the Jewish refugees from that country. The Zionist movement is called upon to relieve this catastrophic situation in Jewish life. We must work out a program of activity for the nearest future. We must work out a four or five year plan to settle the largest possible number of Jewish immigrants in Palestine.”

The Hadassah representation to the World Zionist Congress sailed for Prague Friday night on the White Star liner Majestic. Mrs. David Greenberg, vice-president of the organization, who heads the delegation, in a statement issued before her departure, declared that “considerable progress has been made by the Zionist movement in both the political and economic fields since 1931 and we are hoping for a continuance of that program through the Prague meeting.”