“If the Jews of England, of the British Empire and of America would speak with one voice, the establishment of a Jewish State in Palestine could be achieved,” Dr. Chaim Weizmann stated today at a banquet tendered to him under the auspices of the Jewish National Fund in London.
It was revealed at the banquet that Dr. Weizmann is soon to proceed to the United States. The gathering, pledging further support to the land purchasing scheme of the JNF, asked Dr. Weizmann to take with him a message to the Jews of America. “We are making the start, and it is for you to complete the task,” the message read.
Dr. Weizmann, in his speech, said that when the peace treaty is signed certain political conditions will have to be set up in Europe to enable the Jews to re-establish their lives. He predicted a large post-war emigration of Jews from Eastern and Central Europe and pointed out that “suitable economic and political conditions in Palestine would enable the absorption there of a large number of Jews.” The responsibility for creating these conditions is vested with the victorious democracies, he said, adding that the acquisition by the Jewish National Fund of another 500,000 dunams of land in Palestine would enable the emigration of 300,000 Jewish refugees.
Reviewing the negotiations between the Jewish Agency and the British Government in connection with the formation of a Jewish army, Dr. Weizmann today told a conference of leading Zionists here that lack of “necessary equipment” to supply an independent Jewish army had been given by the British Government as the reason for its refusal to accede to Jewish demands. He reported that in October, 1941, the Colonial Secretary reneged on the assurances of the previous March and those of September, 1940, and declared that a Jewish army was not feasible at the present time.
The Zionist President, nevertheless, called upon Palestinian Jewry to enlist in the British forces despite the disappointment at the negotiations with the government.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
