Declaring that Israel Zangwill is “a great writer but not a great diplomat”, David Lloyd George, the British war premier, denied to the J.T.A. the famous Jewish author’s assertion that “political Zionism is dead”.
Mr. Lloyd George was stopped by the correspondent as he left the platform of the public library just after the conclusion of his speech during the laying of the cornerstone. He was about to enter the automobile with Newton D. Baker, Secretary of War in President Wilson’s Cabinet, and was asked to give his opjnion of Mr. Zangwill’s speech before the American Jewish Congress in Carnegie Hall, during which the speaker declared that “political Zionism is dead”, and that Great Britain had not kept faith regarding its promise to the Jewish people.
“Did Mr. Zangwill really say that? Oh, what made him come out with such such an assertion? I cannot understand him. He is such a good old friend of mine. Well, I don’t agree with him. Political Zionism is not dead. Zangwill is a great writer but not a great diplomat.”
At this point Mr. Baker interrupted Mr. Lloyd George and turning to the correspondent said, “You surely have read what was said at the Jewish Congress?”. Mr. Baker quoted from Dr. Stephen S. Wise’s remarks in introducing Mr. Zangwill that he was to speak” to Israel and not for Israel”.
“Precisely so”, Mr. Lloyd George remarked.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
