The importance of Palestine as a place of refuge for persecuted Jews and as a key to the British position in the Near East was stressed last night by Lord Tweedsmuir, Governor General of Canada, in an address at a dinner of the National Council of the Zionist Organization of Canada.
“Palestine holds the key to the strategical position on the great route between the East and West,” he declared. “The war in Abyssinia has caused most of us to reflect upon the safeguarding of that highroad. To have a strong and contented Palestine will be, in the future, of incalculable value to the British Empire.”
Describing the Jew as the “natural bridge between the East and the West,” Lord Tweedsmuir said that Zionism has never been more important than at this moment, and its success is no less important to Britain. He added that some countries were restricting immigration and Palestine “is the one city of refuge left to the persecuted.”
The Zionist cause, he asserted, is not a party policy. Pointing out that a Governor General is “strictly forbidden to talk politics,” he declared that Zionism was a solemn obligation of the British people, accepted by every party. The Balfour Declaration and the Palestine mandate were built on it, he stated.
Tracing his personal interest in Zionism from the time he was chairman of the Palestine committee of the British House of Commons, Lord Tweedsmuir declared it was desirable not only in the interests of the Jews but of civilization to provide for a Jewish national home. He said he hoped the Holy Land would remain an integral part of the British Empire.
Calling the wave of anti-Semitism in Northern Europe as “one of the greatest tragedies in history,” he described the return of the Jews to Palestine and held that as a consequence “Palestine today is almost the most prosperous community on earth. I think, too, that prosperity will continue.”
Lord Tweedsmuir expressed the belief that Haifa’s harbor and airport would make it the key to trade of the whole Middle East.
“Prophecy,” he said, “is a dangerous business, but with the capital and brains which the Jewish immigrants are bringing to the business, one can say, at any rate, that a land which for many years has been a more geographical expression, a barren country between north and south will become in the fullest sense a self-supporting and confident unit of civilization.”
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.
