Regret at the Revisionists’ secession from the Zionist Organization was expressed yesterday by David Ben-Gurion, the Palestine Labor leader and member of the Zionist Executive, who arrived here Tuesday night to help in the campaign propaganda for the elections to the next Zionist Congress, to be held in Europe in August.
“I believe that Jabotinsky committed the greatest blunder in seceding from the Zionist Organization,” Mr. Ben-Gurion declared.
The Laborites, of which Mr. Ben-Gurion is the leader, expect to have at the next Congress a majority of sixty per cent. They will, however, not seek the presidency of the World Zionist Organization, Mr. Ben-Gurion explained.
SEEK COALITION EXECUTIVE
“We want the president of the Zionist Organization to be a General Zionist. Our aim will be to establish a coalition executive in which all parties participating in the Congress should be represented,” he said.
Asked whether he did not think that the non-Zionists should have fifty per cent representation in the Executive of the Jewish Agency, as they are jointly responsible for the political future of Palestine to the Mandatory Power and to the League of Nations, Mr. Ben-Gurion replied in the negative.
“The present representation of the non-Zionists is adequate,” he stated.
HIS MISSION HERE
Mr. Ben-Gurion intends to remain in America for three or four weeks. “My prime mission in this country is to agitate for the creation of a united American Zionist Organization, embracing all parties without interfering with the separate ideas and ideology of each party,” he explained.
Informed of the call issued this week by Mr. Smilansky, president of the Jewish Farmers Association in Palestine, to all farmers in the country to boycott the next Zionist Congress, Mr. Ben-Gurion commented:
“Smilansky boycotted the Shekel even before the last Congress. His call does not mean a further split in the Zionist ranks.”
DISCUSSES CERTIFICATES
Mr. Ben-Gurion explained that the innovation introduced by the Palestine government with regard to limiting the immigration certificates for unmarried “chalutzim” to one immigrant for each certificate, is new only with regard to single men. As far as unmarried women are concerned, this system has been practiced previously, he emphasized.
The Palestine Labor leader expressed it as his belief that a minimum of 50,000 Jews will enter Palestine this year. Half of this number, he hopes, will come in as immigrants under labor certificates, it the allotment of such certificates is approximately the same this year as last.
A reception to Mr. Ben-Gurion will be given in Carnegie Hall Saturday evening, at which prominent leaders of the Zionist movement in America will speak.
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