For the third time within 30 months, Zionists of New York City extended a hearty welcome to the President of the World Zionist Organization, Dr/ Chaim Weizmann, who arrived on the Aquitania, accompanied by Dr. Arthur Rupin whox is in charge of the Zionist Organization’s economic work in Palestine.
The primary object of Dr/ Weizmann’s present visit is to confer with leaders of American Jewry who, it is hoped, will join the Jewish Agency for Palestine. He will also tour various parts of the United States and Canada in the interests of the Keren Hayesod.
Speaking of the Agency, Dr/ Weizmann said that the Jewries of Europe had evinced a large interest and strong desire to join and that it was imperative to gain the cooperation of American Jews. Dr/ Weizmann hopes that before the next annual conference of the Zionist Organization in the coming summer, the foundation for the Agency, representative of the Jewries of the world, will have been laid. Dr/ Weizmann would not say how many representatives of American Jews it is desired to have on the body which, according to the terms of the Palestine Mandate, is to be consulted in the upbuilding of the Jewish National Home.
The British offer of an Arab Agency was the outcome of a special commission appointed by the Colonial Office to examine the Palestine situation. The Arabs having rejected the offer, the British Government caused it to be known that the present policy will be carried out with or without their cooperation. Dr/ Weizmann explained, however, that although he is opposed to an Arab Agency on the same footing as the Jewish, he is in favor of cooperation with the Arabs of Palestine and of their inclusion in the legislative body.
A council established in America of leading Jews interested in the upbuilding of Palestine to examine all sound private enterprises and attract investors for them is the object of Dr/ Arthur Rupin. The Keren Hayesod, he explained, is an indispensable instrument for the groundwork but gives no absolute safety for investment of private capital. As there are many enterprises which can be carried out on a profitable commercial basis, Dr. Rupin urges the establishment of a sort of clearing house of Pal estine securities to rouse interest in and attract capital for such sound enterprises. This, he believes, would release the Keren Hayesod of some of the commercial aspects it is compelled to engage in in the absence of some semi-commercial body. Dr. Rupin’s idea is that a bank which would guarantee the debentures and make them marketable, which would interest itself in such large projects as the building of the Palestine port, or even take part in the floating of the Palestinian loan, would satisfy a great and pressing need/
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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.
