Palestine Commission Will Be Constructive, Not Critical, Warburg Tells Jerusalem Zionist Executive

(Jewish Telegraphic Agency Mail Service)

A report of the proceedings of the meeting of the Zionist Executive at which Felix M. Warburg spoke, has been made public.

The Chairman, Col. Frederick H. Kisch, extended the greetings of the Executive to Mr. Warburg. He then proceeded to outline the present position in the country, and the plans of new activities to be undertaken by the Zionist Organization, inviting, in conclusion, the distinguished guest to express his opinions on the situation with special reference to the Agreement recently concluded between the President of the Zionist Organization and Mr. Marshall and Mr. Warburg.

In reply Mr. Warburg thanked the Executive for the reception extended to him. “I am very glad,” said Mr. Warburg, “to have had an opportunity to meet the members of this Executive, and to hear all you have told me, as I am in full sympathy with everything that you have undertaken. As I had the pleasure of telling you from time to time in an informal way, although I am not of your army, I am an ally, I hope, not without strength. Lately I have had the great privilege of working with Dr. Weizmann very closely, morning, noon and night, and I left the States with a feeling that decided headway has been made. Every Jew who considers himself a Jew must be interested in the development of Palestine, and it is from that standpoint that I wish to assist you in the various tasks you have undertaken.”

Mr. Warburg outlined his general attitude toward some of the outstanding problems at present before Palestine Jewry, as well as his opinion on some of the plans of the Zionist Organization, and expressed special interest in everything tending to promote agricultural development. “I am also glad that industries are slowly awakening,” Mr. Warburg proceeded. “I am glad to see these concerns growing up, and hope they may make rapid progress. The more one sees of them, the more hopeful one is.

“I think the Agency has come a good deal nearer to completion,” Mr. Warburg continued. “It was a difficult task and you cannot sufficiently appreciate the patience, tact and hard work that Dr. Weizmann has given to it. He came into a very stormy sea, where pilots of limited experience had got off the course, and he succeded in getting the different parties together. He will tell you upon his return of those who have been helpful in the situation,–everybody wants to be helpful at this moment. Let us hope that things remain in this state.”

With regard to the Experts Commission, Mr. Warburg said:

“The Commission is to be constructive and not critical. The people who form the Commission must come with a feeling that Palestine is here, that Palestine must be built up; and they must prepare, without any over-statement of the case, a program for the next ten years providing for the building up of Palestine without any ups and downs, and taking care of the different departments in proper proportion.”

Here Mr. Warburg stressed the fact that it is exceedingly difficult to judge from a distance what is right and what is wrong, because he and his friends are far away, and from a distance “one undertaking looks very much like another. We only know that many enterprises in a colonizing country must be failures. That is why you have acted very wisely in concentrating your offices in Jerusalem. The wisest man if he comes to a situation which is foreign to him cannot get at the facts unless there is a desire to take him to the foundation of the third wall of Jerusalem, and let him look deep down into the rockbed, and not merely to show him the Bezalel siver works which are only superficial.”

In conclusion, Mr. Warburg expressed the hope that the Commission which is to come to Palestine will be received in a friendly spirit and given full opportunity to study the situation. “This is my parting good wish. I am with you in your constructive work. There is not a thing which I would presume to criticize after my short stay here: I only hope that the endeavor in which I have tried to help Dr. Weizmann will lead to a constructive soundless, explosionless investigation which will help and not destroy, and will build and be successful,” Mr. Warburg concluded.