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Smuts Says Balfour Pledge Will Be Carried out in Letter and Spirit by Great Britain

January 19, 1930
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Owing to the lateness of the hour the “Bulletin” was unable to get the complete text of all of the speeches in time for today’s issue. They will be published in full in tomorrow’s issue.

conditions must be maintained in Palestine, for those Jews who want to go there, as will provide security, and that there should be an early and free immigration, for “you cannot talk of a national home if you are excluded from it.”

In the course of his well-received address, which was in the nature of a farewell to the United States, General Smuts also took pains to show that the Balfour Declaration can in no way be interpreted as being hostile to the nationalistic aspirations of the Arab, for whom, he declared, Great Britain had set up the kingdoms of Iraq, Hedjaz and Transjordania.

More than once, General Smuts reiterated the good will that the British people bear for the Jewish National Home, but he cautioned the Jews against a policy of mere fault-finding. He suggested that constructive statesmanship on their part would do much to find a way to harmonize the differences between Jews and Arabs.

Louis Lipsky president of the World Zionist Organization, who acted as chairman, welcomed General Smuts on behalf of the Zionist Organization the Jewish Agency and other Jewish organizations whose representatives were present. In speaking of General Smuts, Lipsky said he “has earned the gratitude of all Jews for what he has done to secure the recognition of Jewish rights in Palestine, for it was only through the Mandate system that it has become possible for claims to justice with regard to Palestine to be heard and established in an international forum.”

Felix Warburg, chairman of the administrative committee of the Jewish Agency, in greeting General Smuts, declared that the Agency would carry on in Palestine despite the recent events and that the Agency had dedicated itself to the upbuilding of Palestine. Mr. Warburg asked General Smuts to extend the greetings of those in America working for Palestine, to Dr. Chaim Weizmann and to assure him that they were carrying on.

Other speakers were Morris Rothenberg, vice-president of the Zionist Organization of America, Mrs. Robert Szold, on behalf of Hadassah, and Rabbi Stephen S. Wise.

FREE SYNAGOGUE’S PRESIDENT RESIGNS

Charles Bloch, president of the Free Synagogue, of which Rabbi Stephen S. Wise is the spiritual leader, has resigned. Mr. Bloch, who has been with the Free Synagogue for nearly twenty-five years, was, together with Rabbi Wise, one of its founders.

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