Lipsky, Back from Basle, Says Z. O. Congress Achieved Consolidation Work

Louis Lipsky, president of the Zionist Organization of America, returned yesterday on the steamer Aquitania from Basle, where he attended the Fifteenth Zionist Congress. Dr. Simon Bernstein, editor of “Dos Yiddishe Folk,” who was a member of the American delegation to the Congress, returned on the same steamer.

In an interview with the representative of the Jewish Daily Bulletin Mr. Lipsky expressed his satisfaction with the outcome of the Fifteenth Zionist Congress, terming it a Congress of consolidation, and of a preparatory nature prior to the assumption of work by the extended Jewish Agency. He reviewed the proceedings of the Congress in an optimistic vein, expressing his hope that the coordination will bring about a greater amount of support by American Jews for strengthening the old and starting new enterprises in Palestine.

“The Basle Congress was an eminently satisfactory meeting.” Mr. Lipsky said. “It has cleared the atmosphere of a great deal of misunderstanding and paved the way for normal progress in Palestine. The Organization freed itself for the first time in its history from the clamping influence of partisanship and adopted measures calculated to frame a policy adapted to the actual situation in Palestine.

“It was clear to the three hundred delegates present from all countries that the Organization could no longer delay the rectification of error in law and execution, and that a new system must be introduced unburdened by sentimentality and idealistic doctrine.

“The Zionist Organization had been held in a vise of parties, ragging at authority and harrying the free exercise of judgment. The Basle Congress liberated the organization to a large extent from this handicap and elected an executive composed of representatives of the renter groups who are not subject to partisan controls, either in Palestine or outside of it. The Congress adopted a budget reasonably limited to the prospective income reducing appropriations whenever possible, simplifying administration and making adequate provision to the discharge of the past two years that have been a serious financial difficulty. The election of Henriertz Szold, Summary president of Hadassah Harry Sachet, an English lawyer, resident for seven years in Palestine, and Col. Frederick H. Kisch for four years Zionist political officer in Palestine as members of the Zionist Executive, and the retirement from office of Messrs, Pick. Sprinnak, Kaplansky, of the parties represented indicates the character of the new Zionist administration.

“It was clear that the policy of expansion without accurate reference to financial reasons could no longer be ## without loss of prestige and authority, and without destroying the ## of our ## achievements in Palestine. We always had to have a large budget and always to measure us to larger results failure to do which was taken to mean retrogression. This medicine made a healthy growth impossible. It could not be continued. The Basle Congress adopted a policy of consolidation. This means that before beginning new ventures on small margins of investment, we shall first of all finish the work we have started, not fearing to abandon work that has ##. “There is no value in leaping ahead at a chance of success. Our progress must be more certain if slower, and there should be less enterprise undertaken for its effect upon propaganda.

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