The first anniversary of the death of the first Lord Melchett (Sir Alfred Mond) which occurred at his home in London on the afternoon of December 27th., 1930, was observed this afternoon by a traditional Jewish memorial service held in the Imperial Chemical Building in Haifa, at which the Marquess of Reading, who had close family and business relations with Lord Melchett, delivered the address.
But for Lord Melchett’s inspiration, I should not have done a tenth part of what I have done for Palestine, said Lord Reading, who is Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Palestine Electric Corporation, was Vice-Chairman of the Palestine Emergency Fund raised after the 1929 Palestine massacres and has on several occasions rendered great help to the Zionist movement, notably after the 1929 outbreak, when a tribute was paid to him at the meeting of the Administrative Committee of the Jewish Agency and the Actions Committee for his co-operation with the Executive in making representations to the Government, and again after the issue of the Passfield White Paper in the negotiations which led up to the issue of the Prime Minister’s letter of authoritative interpretation.
Lord and Lady Reading also each planted to-day a pine in the Balfour Forest in the Jewish Colony of Jinjar, in the Valley of Jezreel, next to those planted in 1928 by the late Lord Melchett, Lady Melchett and Lady Erleigh, Lord Melchett’s daughter, and daughter-in-law of Lord Reading, when the then High Commissioner, Field-Marshal Lord Plumer, inaugurated the Balfour Forest during their visit to Palestine.
The Zionist movement is young and therefore impatient, the late Lord Melchett said on that occasion, declaring himself highly optimistic with regard to the future of Palestine, but Zion is thousands of years old and despite repeated failures it always rises again, concluding his speech by quoting in the Hebrew the passage from Isaiah “Nachmuh, Nachmuh Ami” (“Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people”).
Mr. Pinchas Rutenberg, the Managing Director of the Palestine Electric Corporation, and Mr. Epstein and Mr. Weitz, of the Jewish National Fund head office in Jerusalem, who went to Jinjar specially for the occasion, were present at the planting of the saplings in the Balfour Forest by Lord and Lady Reading.
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