Daily Digest of Public Opinion on Jewish Matters

[The purpose of the Digest is informative: Preference is given to papers not generally accessible to our readers. Quotation does not indicate approval.-Editor.j

THE VITAL INNOVATION OF THE MANDATE SYSTEM

The possibility of changes in the Mandate system that would permit the Mandates Commission to conduct its own inquiry instead of waiting for the report of the mandatory Power, is touched upon by the New York “Times” in the course of an editorial dealing with the present examination of the French Mandate in Syria by the Mandates Commission. Says the paper:

“A great Power under cross-examination with regard to its colonial policies and methods — such is the spectacle presented by the French Government in the hearings before the Mandates Commission of the League of Nations on the administration of the French mandate in Syria.

“Suzerain Powers have always described themselves as exercising their authority over backward races in the role of trustees for the benefit of the subject people and. as the phrase has been, for civilization. But the suzerain Power has always been responsible only to its own conscience.

“The vital innovation introduced by the League is that it imposes on the suzerain holding title under the League a concrete and external responsibility. Scrutiny is not an unfriendly act, as any intervention by a foreign Government under the Pre-League system would have been regarded.The mandate system is thus rooted in the basic idea of the League itself. The Covenant declares explicitly that it shall not be an ‘unfriendly act’ on the part of one Government to call the attention of another Government to matters which in the old days it would have been regarded as an unwarranted interference in “internal” affairs to take up.

“In this consists the reply to the cynical observation that ‘mandate’ is only a euphemism for colonial exploitation and that by any name the French rule would taste as bitter to the Syrian people. But we are only at the beginning. A development that may be expected in the course of time is the right of the Mandates Commission to conduct its own inquiry instead of waiting for the report of the mandatory Power.”

MRS. ROSENBLOOM’S $500,000 GIFT TO THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY

The latest gift to the Hebrew University, that of $500,000 by Mrs. Sol Rosenbloom, indicates, the “Day” points out, that having learned to give on a large scale for the alleviation of the material conditions of their fellow-Jews, the Jews are learning to give generously for the interests of Jewish spiritual and cultural needs.

“Every large gift to the Hebrew University,” the paper says, “serves as an encouragement for others to follow the example. Warburg, Wattenberg and Mrs. Rosenbloom have not only laid a firm foundation for the University, they have laid the path for other large gifts. Jews have become accustomed to giving large sums for relief, for the body. They must now learn to give money for the spirit, to develop Jewish culture.

“This is a new tendency in Jewish philanthropy and therefore it is difficult. But this path, too, will be trodden and the Hebrew University on Mount Scopus will be built up so that it will not be ashamed before the universities of other nations.”

The “Jewish Morning Journal.” commenting on Mrs. Rosenbloom’s gift, says the Hebrew University was born in ” a lucky hour” and the wonderful publicity its opening received is now bringing the expected fruits.

“After the splendid gifts of Mr. Felix M. Warburg, Mr. Philip Wattenberg and the late Mr. Sol Rosenbloom, comes the widow of the latter and gives a half million dollars, making the Hebrew University the richest Jewish educational institution in Palestine, the only one that has received about a million dollars from American Jews. And this is only the beginning.”