Now-editorial Notes

The decision was made at the Zionist Convention to call an emergency conference this year for the purpose of mobilizing “the moral and material resources of American Jewry to remove all obstacles in the path of the re-establishment of the Jewish national home.” The resolution emphasizes the fact that “in the face of the provisions of the mandate and pledges and promises repeatedly made by the mandatory power, administrative policy and governmental regulations frustrate the hopes of tens of thousands whose only salvation lies in a return to Palestine.”

Such a conference is an urgent necessity. The British government, having given the Balfour Declaration and having accepted the mandate over Palestine upon the basis of that Declaration, should interpret the Balfour Declaration and the mandate as Lord Balfour himself interpreted them in his addresses before the House of Lords. Legalistic sophistry and subterfuge on the part of the Colonial Office and the Palestine Administration should have no room in the covenant between Great Britain and the Jewish people with regard to Palestine. The Balfour Declaration and the mandate have become recognized as moral international obligations, and the Jewish people is justified in expecting the fulfillment of these obligations in view of its own extraordinary efforts and sacrifices in carrying out its share of the obligations under the terms of the covenant.

The tribute paid to Zionism and to the Zionists by Felix M. Warburg at the convention will inspire the lukewarm and the indifferent in our midst to view the creative work in Palestine more sympathetically and to help it more generously.

“Out of the Palestine experiment has come a most valuable achievement,” said Mr. Warburg. “What other country is there where, for the disenfranchised Jews, a hopeful future can be envisioned?

“My joy today lies in the fact that we stand allied together, helping each other, in unselfish cooperation, in a joint enterprise, not Zionist and non-Zionist, but allied agencies, with less and less politics and more policies; with fewer executive and more achievement.”

Concentrating on truly constructive work, on greater coordination of Zionist efforts, and adopting a definite, courageous, dignified and well-considered position with regard to the mandatory power, the Jewish achievements in Palestine will continue to develop the Jewish national home, and the mandatory power will not fail to fulfill its moral obligations to the Jewish people, if the appeal will come from a united Jewry, backed by the sympathy of the hosts of non-Jewish friends of Jewish Palestine.