What Will Happen at Zionist Congress?: Revisionists Ready to Take over Leadership Either with Purely

We have always held that no body of men is entitled to criticise unless they are also prepared to construct, Mr. Meer Grossman said in the course of a statement to Press representatives to-day at the Central Office here of the Executive of the Revisionist World Union. Having led this powerful opposition and fused it into an effective instrument, he went on, we are now prepared to assume the management of Zionist affairs and to put our programme and our ideas into practical effect. We are ready to take over the leadership either with a purely Revisionist Executive, or in co-operation with men who could be trusted to work with us in the spirit of our programme and our outlook. We have the feeling that the Zionist Movement is rich in men who are ready to admit wholeheartedly the fresh forces of Revisionism to a position which will give us an effective influence on the affairs of the Organisation.

One of the effects of the Polish election results, he added, is the virtual eclipse of Deputy Gruenbaum. It fully proves our claim that his share in the Political Commission was in no way endorsed by Polish Zionism; it was a purely personal representation. In addition, it goes a long way to prove our contention that the Executive’s negotiations with the Government did not have the popular support claimed by the Zionist leaders.

Although the results of the elections are not yet complete and the number of delegates which will be allotted to us from the World List is not determined, Mr. Grossman said, it is already possible to see that we shall have some 50 Revisionist Delegates. At the Congress in Vienna in 1925, the Revisionists were represented by one or two delegates; at the following Congress held in Basle in 1927 the Revisionist fraction numbered 10; this number was increased at the last Congress in Zurich in 1929 to 18 elected delegates, apart from the two Revisionist members of the Actions Committee, who were entitled to sit and vote at the Congress. The manner in which the elections have been conducted in a number of countries, including England, will also be brought before the Congress Court, he added.

There are signs, Mr. Grosaman went on, that the Revisionist point of view is winning not only numerically, but spiritually. The Congress programme of the American Zionist Organisation is so near to the basic principles of Revisionism that co-operation between Revisionism and American Zionism becomes a practical possibility. There are also signs that considerable sections of the Zionist Movement are turning towards the Revisionist viewpoint. We have, therefore, every reason to hope that, providing no part spirit is allowed to gain ascendancy, the coming Congress will succeed in giving a new turn to Zionist policy and method.

It is wrong to regard the Revisionists as interested only in political matters, he concluded. We have decided opinions and definite schemes touching methods of colonisation, organised mass immigration, banking, fiscal problems, industrial development, Palestine marketing, etc., all of which we regard as interdependent problems affecting the evolution of the Jewish Commonwealth. They have definite places in our plan of work, for it has been our declared view that the upbuilding of Palestine must proceed along lines laid down in advance and towards an ultimate objective.