Roll Call Vote Gives Zionists’ Final Approval of Jewish Agency Pact

By a final vote, the Sixteenth Zionist Biennial Congress in session here ratified the compact between the Zionists and non-Zionists for the formation of a joint Jewish Agency for Palestine, when the text of the constitution for this Agency was passed in its second and third readings, the vote being taken by roll call. In the second reading, 94 delegates voted for an 21 against the constitution. In the third and final reading, which took place in the early hours of Friday morning, the vote cast was 230 for and 30 against. Four members, including the presiding chairman, Dr. Leo Motzkin, abstained from voting. Forty-six delegates were absent during the final roll call.

Dr. Stephen S. Wise, who declared his readiness to approve of the plan provided certain stipulations are made, vote in the negative. The delegation representing the American Zionists voted in a body for the Jewish Agency plan.

PARTY LEADERS MAKE DECLARATIONS

Before the roll call was taken, the discussion which was in progress on the amendment of Dr. Max Soloweithcik that the Zionist Congress should always elect the Zionist part of the Jewish Agency Executive was interrupted to allow the party leaders to read declarations on behalf of their groups in regard to the general resolution ratifying the Jewish Agency constitution. It was two o’clock in the morning when the declarations were made. The statements in favor of the Jewish Agency were not wanting in doubts and misgivings. Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver of Cleveland read the declaration in behalf of the American Zionist delegation, Rabbi Meyer Berlin in behalf of the Mizrachi, Berl

Locker for the Poale Zion, Joseph Sprinzak for the Hitachduth, and I. Schechtman in behalf of the Zionist Revisionists.

AMERICANS’ POINT OF VIEW

“Time will dissipate the doubts and fears,” declared Rabbi Silver. “Within a few days our new friends and allies will be here. Let us bear in mind that they come as friends and fellow Jews, as men to whom the appeal of Palestine has finally proved irresistible, as men who wish to assume with us corporate national responsibility. We have not been precipitated into this historic moment. Rarely has a matter received so earnest a consideration and as prolonged and searching a discussion. With this act there begins a new era. I speak for the American Zionists who are anxious that this step should eventuate in the greatest good. This will be accomplished, provided we here and those who come bring to this compact an earnest under standing and a willingness to bridge the gulfs and not to widen them, “Rabbi Silver stated.

LABORITES LEND SUPPORT WITH MISGIVINGS

“We realize the difficulty. The acceptance of the Jewish Agency constitutes a great hard ship for us who are a ware of the anti-democratic form of the Agency. We go, however, prepared to face bitter struggles,” declared Berl Locker in behalf of the Poale Zion, labor party. “Since the Fourteenth Congress, reactionary forces have appeared in the Zionist movement, but we rely on the thousands of Chalutzim (Palestine pioneers), who are determined to battle for the rights of Jewish labor,” he said.

Joseph Sprinzak, speaking in behalf of the labor party, Hitachduth, defended his party’s stand on the Jewish Agency pact. The ideas of his party, he said, became the basis for the constitution of the Jewish Agency which is now being adopted.

“We shall vote individually, knowing as we do that we have not obtained every thing we sought. We go in to the Agency feeling that Zion will not be redeemed by constitutions. We honor the Zionist flag, but more than the flag we honor the standard bearers, the workers who go to Zion. If the constitution infringes upon our cherished structure, we shall not hesitate to tear it. We believe in the forces which join us, trusting in our power to attract greater forces,” he said.

MIZRACHI ENTERS “WITH HEAVY HEART”

Rabbi Meyer Berlin sounded a note of regret not unmixed with hope.

“With the signing of the pact at this hour, we stand before a new era. We are looking for ward to the time when not only individuals but the entire Jewish people will participate in the Geulah (redemption) which should be not only a redemption of the land but a redemption of the Jewish heart. It is to be regretted that in stead of extending the Zionist Organization to admit all Jews, the Zionist Organization was forced to this step and obliged to make the partnership. Our road is full of thorns. We enter with heavy hearts, accepting the new travail with faith and love,” Rabbi Berlin said.

REVISIONISTS SEE “DESTRUCTION AND DISSOLUTION” OF ZIONISM

The Revisionists’ declaration sounded a firm dissenting and pessimistic note. It characterized the extension of the Jewish Agency as “sacrificing the democratic principles of the Jewish National movement and the sovereignty of the Zionist Congress.”

“The Zionist Congress will now be reduced to an insignificant advisory body which will not be able to gather around it the Zionist masses. The movement it self will be robbed of its main creative source and is doomed to destruction and dissolution,” the Revisionist declaration said.

RADICAL ZIONISTS WILL COOPERATE

After the roll call was taken and the Agency constitution was ratified the Radical Zionists declared in a statement read by Dr. Emil Margulies of Czechoslovakia that they will cooperate with the Jewish Agency, the creation of which they opposed. The Zionist Revisionists left the assembly hall to hold a caucus after the vote.

A motion introduced by the Radical Zionists to deprive the Zionist Executive of the right to agree to any change in the amendment to the constitution adopted by the Congress, in contrast to the view of the non-Zionists embodied in their draft, that one-half of the Agency Executive must always be elected by the Zionist Congress, was tabled by a majority of 126 to 92. Dr. Arthur Ruppin, Isaac Naiditch and Berthold Feiwel voted with the opposition on this point.

Before the roll call was taken on the special resolution authorizing the Executive to sign the agreement with the non-Zionists, Deputy Gruenbaum rose to ask Dr. Weizmann whether he would sign the Agency pact if the non-Zionists insist on their demand that after the first Executive is elected, the future Executives must be selected not by the Zionist Congress but by the Jewish Agency Council as a whole. He asked the Zionist leader what is his understanding of the vote of 126 to 92 to table the resolution restraining him from yielding on this point. Dr. Weizmann replied with determination that his understanding of the vote is that it imposes upon him an obligation to do all that is possible to secure the consent of the non-Zionists to the Congress resolution and to safeguard the right of the Congress to choose its part of the Agency Executive. In case this fails, he will immediately consult the Zionist half (Continued on Page 4)

of the Agency Council and give “the proper reply.”

Deputy Gruenbaum further insisted “whether Dr. Weizmann would not be good enough to put at ease the Congress and the Zionist world by saying immediately what will be his reply then. “Dr. Motzkin, the chairman, directed the question to Dr. Weizmann, to which the Zionist leader responded: “No.” The delegates, among whom there was a great uproar during the parley, calmly took cognizance of the reply.

PALESTINE SONGS PRELUDE TO MIDNIGHT SESSION

Before the Thursday midnight session opened, the Palestine delegations, particularly the Laborites, contributed a refreshing note, buoying up the depressed spirit of the tired delegates. The hall resounded with modern Palestine songs and Chassidic tunes coming from the labor benches. The Palestinians congregated around the Hebrew poets Saul Tschernichovski and Leib Jaffe, re-enacting the nightly scenes in the Palestine settlements when the workers gather after their day’s labor to sing.

STATUTES OF Z. O. CHANGED

The session opened with the transaction of business on the recommendation of the Committee on Organization Questions. The Congress adopted, with out difficulty, the unanimous report of the Committee for making changes in the statutes of the World Zionist Organization and for internal reorganization. The recommendations were submitted by Lazarus Barth, Germany. Important among the changes in the statutes is the extension of the powers of the Zionist Executive. The paragraph was changed to read as follows:

“The Executive represents the Zionist Organization to the world, is authorized to enter obligations and to conclude agreements in behalf of the Zionist Organization.

While the session was in progress, further efforts were made to solve the Executive crisis, since Dr. Weizmann and Mr. Sacher presented an ultimatum to the parties to declare their final views with in a given time.

WEIZMANN AGAIN DELIVERS ULTIMATUM

“In the event the Congress fails to elect an Executive and decides to request the president to form a cabinet subject to the ratification of the Actions Committee (General Council), Is hall decline to do it,” Dr. Weizmann informed the Congress at one o’clock Friday morning.

Dr. Weizmann’s proposal to the Committee on Committees, couched in the form of an ultimatum, called for the inclusion in the Executive of two members of the Left Wing, one, probably S. Kaplansky, to be stationed in London, and a second ,probably Joseph Sprinzak, to be stationed in Palestine. The Executive is to include Harry Sacher and would not include Dr. Arthur Ruppin.

The Committee on Committees deliberated on this proposal until a late hour Friday morning, but as it adjourned, Dr. Weizmann’s latest slate appeared doomed.