Senator Borah, at American Jewish Congress Dinner, Urges Regard for Rights of Small Nations

(Jewish Daily Bulletin)

“Without Firing a Shot’ was magnificent sentence to be interpolated for the great cause in which Dr. Weizmann, the wonderful individual who preceded me, spoke. It was characteristic of the speaker and characteristic of the race for which he spoke. The Zionist Movement is one of the most thrilling incidents in the whole history of the world. The race which has honored and helped to build every civilization under the sun is now seeking to establish a home for itself. It is a stupendous enterprise worthy of the vision, the intellectual power and the moral courage of the people for whom it is presented and I sincerely trust it will be the success it has been prophesied tonight.”

This was the declaration made in his address by Senator William E. Borah, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, at a banquet following the first session of the American Jewish Congress Sunday night.

“Without firing a shot should be the guiding principle in all international affairs,” Borah declared, pleading for justice to the small and weaker peoples including the Jews.

“There is an infinitely stronger power and a more compelling influence in working out the proper relationship between this country and the Latin-American countries,” the Senator said.

“The truth is that the great problem in international affairs at this time is one growing out of the relationship between strong nations and small or weak nations. China, Syria, Nicaragua and Mexico all present the same problem and reveal the same sinister policy.

“Are small nations of helpless people to be deprived of their natural wealth, their governments set up and broken down, their own way of living denied them, all in the name of protecting life and property, or are we to adopt such methods and such means of adjusting the controversies which will inevitably arise, as will insure settlement upon the basis of justice rather that upon the basis of force?

“People who acquire property in foreign lands should at all time be willing to submit their property rights, if brought in question, either to the laws and courts of the country in which their property is situated, or at most, to arbitration.

“The time has passed when people will go to war to uphold titles which exploiters and investors are unwilling to submit to scrutiny of judicial investigation.”

In this connection he severely criticized the policy of the United States Government at this time in Nicaragua and toward Mexico. Dr. Weizmann stressed the point that Palestine occupies a central position in any consideration of the world Jewish situation.

Turning to Senator Boarah. former Senator Owen and other distinguished guests at the speakers’ table, Dr. Weizmann declared: “We have chosen to exist and not to disappear. Our greatest strenth and our greatest weakness is our indestructibility. We must have half a million Jews in Palestine within the span of our lives and we shall have this half million there.

“For such a cause we are entitled not to beg but to ask for sympathy and support of the world’s statesmen,” he declared.

Senator Borah in referring to Dr. Weizmann’s speech declared that “the greatness of your cause is that you ask for nothing that any honest man can deny.”

Judge Mack reviewed the work of the first American Jewish Congress delegation to the Peace Conference and since then the Jewish minority rights in Eastern and Central Europe and closed with a strong plea for the maximum efforts of American Jews in support of the protection of Jewish support of the protection of Jewish rights and for Zionism.

Former Senator Owen of Oklahoma told of his long standing interest in and sympathy for Zionism, stating he had accepted the invitation to attend the banquet in order to express his gratification over the progress of the movement.

Samuel Untermyer and Paul Warburg had helped him greatly, he said, in the Federal Banking legislation when he served as Chairman of the Senate Banking and Currency Committee.

Isaac Gruenbaum delivered an address in Hebrew. Dr. Wise was toast master.