An announcement that a Pro-Palestine League will be formed in South Africa was made to-day by Mr. Jan Hofmeyr, M.P., one of the leaders of the South African Party, who was formerly Administrator of the Transvaal, when he took the chair at a reception given here to Dr. Weizmann, attended by General Smuts, the leader of the South African Party and former Prime Minister, and many prominent non-Jewish personages in political, civil and professional life.
A movement to form a Pro-Palestine Committee in South Africa was started in October 1928, when General Smuts, Mr. Tielman Roos, the Minister of Justice, Colonel Cresswell, the Minister of Defence, leaders of all the political parties in the country, the Administrators of the four provinces, the Vice-Chancellers of the four Universities and the leading dignitaries of the three great Christian Churches, signed a lengthy and enthusiastic declaration of sympathy with the Jews and with Zionism, signifying their readiness tp serve as members of a Pro-Palestine Committee.
The Manifesto, which was issued in connection with Colonel Kisch’s visit to South Africa, was drawn up by Mr. Fofmeyr, and read in part:
“Palestine, as the national home of the Jewish people, seems destined to play a great part in the world’s affairs. Its position relative to other Eastern lands is such that one may expect it to become increasigly important on the material and temporal side. But its spiritual greatness should be of even larger significance. Nurtured and rejuvenated by contact with its national soil, Israel cannot but initiate a new chapter in the annals of the human spirit. It is for that reason that we see in the re-establishment of the Jewish people in Palestine an event fraught with consequences of great significance and value to the world, and we therefore desire hereby to signify our readiness, when the occasion may arise, to render such assistance as we are able to promote the realisation of the ideal of the Jewish National Home”.
Mr. Hofmeyr was in Palestine in March 1929, and said there that he was greatly impressed by the rapid Jewish development he had seen in the country. The following month, he was in London, when he was given a reception by the Zionist Executive. He had visited the Jewish colonies both in the south and in the north, he said in his address, and was particularly impressed by the remarkable development of the Valley of Esdraelon. The rapid growth of Tel Aviv could be compared with that of Johannesburg, but happily there were no tin shanties in Tel viv. He fully appreciated the difficulties, both political and economic, which the Zionists had to overcome, he said, but he was confident of their ultimate success. He assured the Executive of the warm sympathy for the Zionist cause that was entertained not only by the Jews but also by most of the non-Jews in South Africa.
Professor Brodetsky, in welcoming Mr. Hofmeyr, conveyed to him the thanks of the Executive for the initiative he took in drawing up the Pro-Zionist Manifesto signed by the leading personalities in the public life of South Africa, which was issued last November.
Rabbi Dr. J. L. Landau, of Johannesburg, who was then in London, also paid a tribute to the valuable services that Mr. Hofmeyr had rendered to the Zionist movement in South Africa.
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