Lord Melchett Elected President of English Zionist Federation

(Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

Electing Lord Melchett (Sir Alfred Mond) as president of the English Zionist Federation, the English Zionists at their annual conference held here Sunday, July 8, adopted a number of resolutions concerning the recommendations of the Jewish Agency Commission’s report.

Although expressing agreement with the main policy outlined by the Jewish Agency Commission in its report made public two weeks ago, the Federation of English Zionists went on record as demanding important changes in the proposed program.

The resolution stressed the opinion that it is essential for both the Jewish Agency and the Palestine administration to encourage Jewish immigration into Palestine by providing a special, adequate item in their budgets for this purpose. While endorsing the policy of consolidation in the Jewish colonies already existing in Palestine, the English Zionists in their resolution declared that they consider the temporary cessation of new colonization work in Palestine as undesirable. Such a move would be, ‘detrimental to obtaining financial support from the Jewish people.”

The resolution was also at variance with the recommendation of the Jewish Agency Commission concerning the communal settlements known as Kvuzoth. The resolution pointed out that the Kvutzoth, whose discontinuance the Jewish Agency Commission recommends, have “evoked the self-sacrifice of the Chaluzim and the admiration of the Jewish and non-Jewish supporters of the movement.” The further establishment of Kvuzoth, with such safeguards as are necessary for economic considerations should be permitted.

Regarding the land reserve which the Jewish Agency is to acquire to enable the colonization of settlers on the basis of private ownership, in addition to the Keren Kayemath plan, the conference of the English Zionists urged that this land should not be resold by the Jewish Agency to the private settlers without such safeguards as would insure its remaining in Jewish hands and preserve the interests of the Jewish National Home.

The resolution of the Englsh Zionists also declares that the annual minimum budget of £1,000,000 contemplated in the Agency report for the next five years is “inadequate and disproportionate to the magnitude of the task and the hope reposed in the extended Jewish Agency.”

The conference expects the enlarged Agency, when constituted, to lay down a definite program and to secure a fund covering at least the minimum budget proposed in the Commission’s report.

A protest against the deportations and floggings of prisoners in Palestine jails was registered by the conference.