The granting of an international loan to the World Zionist Organization in behalf of the Jewish National Home in Palestine, to be incurred under the auspices of the League of Nations and guaranteed by-several governments is a legal and factual possibility in the opinion of Leon Blum, French Jewish deputy and socialist leader, an outstanding figure in the political life of France.
Writing in “Palestine,” published by the French Pro-Palestine Committee, Deputy Blum advocates the idea of a loan to be negotiated by the Zionist Organization acting as the Jewish Agency. The issue would be in the nature of a “minority loan,” floated under the auspices of the League of Nations in the manner of the Greek and Bulgarian loans, at the same time on board international lines like that of Austria, parts of which are to be guaranteed by several governments. The security would be the colonization lands, their revenue and the regular receipts of the Zionist funds. Deputy Blum expresses the opinion that the income of the Zionist funds will not only not diminish because of the loan but will rather continue to increase.
A decision made recently by the Permanent Mandates Commission of the League of Nations in the case of the French Government plan for a loan in behalf of the mandated territory of Camerun, paved the legal ground for establishing the status of such a loan.
The loans granted for Bulgarian and Greek refugees in transferred territories were of a similar character, Deputy Blum says.
This loan to the Zionist Organization would mark the “financial enthronement” of the idea of the Jewish National Home in Palestine and would also end the stage of experimenting in the Palestine enterprise, which rested until now on the principal of charity alone. In presenting his argument for the loan. Deputy Blum in his article which is reproduced in the current issue of “The New Palestine,” say:
“Until now the maintenance of the Jewish National Homeland, its capacity for immigration, work and prosperity has rested, and still rests, upon voluntary contributions from Jews the world over. Whether the appeal is to faith, self-respect or duty, the final principle is charity. (I use the word ‘charity’ intentionally, although I am aware that it might appear to give this continuous, controlled and well-planned voluntary contribution a precarious and temporary character it does not have. But the use of the term is justified by the charity-like arbitrarinesss of this contribution, and by the similar means of solicitation required; and the word lays desirable emphasis upon, even though it slightly exaggerates, the uncertain and inadequate nature of the present system.) Charity is beautiful, and of great value. But not as a regular economic force upon which permanent laws are to be established. This is why modern states have replaced voluntary contrbutions by direct or indirect legal expedients–taxes and loans.
“We see, however, that in the case of the political and social modern entity of the Jewish National Homeland the modern states which have taken charge of its destiny are content to let it depend upon charity alone. They regulate their solicitude according to the extent of Jewish charity with regard to the Jewish National Homeland, as if they considered this a sort of test that will enable them to judge whether it is viable or not.
“But I believe it hardly compatible with the dignity of the guardian nations for them to adhere any longer to this preliminary phase, or to perpetuate this developmental stage which has been imposed upon Zionism.
“One of two things must be true: Either the Jewish National Homeland has a moral and political raison d’etre, or it has not. It is difficult to imagine that all the machinery of various chancelleries has been set in motion, that men of the first rank in diplomacy and politics–men of all countries and all parties, a Cambon, a Lord Balfour, a Poincare, a Briand, a Benes, a Ramsay MacDonald–should have proclaimed the utility and timeliness of a Jewish National Homeland in Palestine, merely for the cruel pleasure of seeing whether the rich Jews are capable of giving regular assistance to the poor Jews, merely for the somewhat perverse distraction of watching a fine charity tournament.
“But let us assume that this was their point of view. Even so, I believe that the experiment is finished by this time, and that the proof has been conclusive.
“I have before me the statistical report of the amounts collected by the Palestine Foundation Fund (Keren Hayesod), alone, from April, 1921 to September. 1927. The sum total reaches 3,150,817 pound sterling, coming from the United States, South Africa, Canada, Poland, England, Germany, Roumania, South America, Holland. Czechoslovakia, Lithuania, Latvia, Bulgaria, Jugoslavia, Greece, Turkey, Belgium, France, Switzerland, and even Palestine itself.
“These three and a quarter million pounds have been invested as follows (in round figures): One million in agricultural colonies; 662,000 pounds in municipal and public works; 564,000 pounds in the schools; 331,600 in immigration work; 250,000 in sanitation work; 182,000 pounds have been spent for religious and communal institutions, and 151,000 have gone for administrative expenses.
“But these statistics represent only a part of the Zionist efforts. And they consider not at all the first colonies founded through the generosity of Baron Edmond de Rothschild and supported by him; these preceded the National Homeland, but will consolidate more and more with it, and will aid its free growth as they have encouraged it,” Deputy Blum declares.
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