Chapter XLIXD (6)

Lieut.-Colonel Sir Mark Sykes, Bart., M.P., said: “My lords, ladies and gentlemen, I should like to say, before I say one other word, that the reason I am interested in this movement is that I met one some two years ago who is now upon this platform, and who opened my eyes as to what this movement meant. He is on the list of speakers; you will hear him presently; his name is known to most in the records of Zionism: I mean Dr. Gaster. I speak as one from without, as a watcher, but I feel, as everyone present must feel, that this meeting here to-day marks not a turning-point in the history of your own race, but I think certainly a turning-point in the history of the whole world. When one thinks of the years that have passed, of the immense spaces of history which stand between what was――and now is――promised, one is truly dazzled by the possibilities and prospects which open before us. I see, speaking to you as a watcher――now you, in a sense, are perhaps watchers also――perhaps you see something, perhaps you see three nations stricken with plague, cumbered with ruin, and Europe a welter of blood. Perhaps you see these three nations, and you realize that it may be your destiny to be a bridge between Asia and Europe, to bring the spirituality of Asia to Europe, and the vitality of Europe to Asia. That I firmly believe is the mission of Zionism. I see here something which is greater than a dream or a League of Nations. It is a league of continents, a league of races, and finally a league of ideals. That is a great vision. That is what I believe lies before you, but no one present realizes more than I do――I know the ground, some of it――and boldly I dare to say that there lie before you dangers, difficulties, possibly obstructions, but, ladies and gentlemen, your time of probation has been long, you are schooled in adversity, you can look to difficulties with calm, and you will overcome them. I do not look for a sudden magic transformation, but I believe you are beginning a great beneficial and irresistible transition. That is what you are beginning. Now, I believe, I hope you are going to set up a power that is not the domination of blood, not the domination of gold, but the domination of a great intellectual force. I believe you will see Palestine the great centre of ideals, radiating out to every country in the world where your people are, and if there is one thing that gives me pleasure to be here to-day, it is to feel that at this turning-point of your history, when the Government made its Declaration, you not only thought of yourselves but you thought also of others, and you will always look back with joy to the fact that when the promise, when the hope was held out to you of redemption, you thought not only of yourselves, but thought of your fellows in adversity, the Armenians and the Syrian Arabs. It is said that the Jewish people have a long memory. I believe that you remember Cordova, where your influence on modern civilization was at its zenith, and I think you remember what you owed to the Arabs in Cordova. You remember in the days when the Jews were so oppressed in Russia what you owed to the Armenians, who were your companions in oppression. These tragedies are very different in their nature, and three tragedies destined to unite in one triumph. If all three hold together, the realization of your ideal is certain. There are evil people who will desire that you should fail. If these three forces should be dismissed, there will be the danger of any one of them becoming the prey of a political adventurer, militarist, or the financier. For Palestine to be a success you must have a satisfied and tranquil Syria. For liberty to be certain in Palestine, you must have guarantees that no savage races shall return there. You want to see Armenia free because you want to know that all people are free. You want to know the Arab is free, because he is, and always will be, your neighbour. Lastly, I would also say this: I look forward through difficulty and through pain to see Armenia free, and to prove the inevitable triumph of right over the greatest might there may be. I look to see the Arab civilization restored once more in Bagdad and in Damascus, and I look to see the return of Israel, with his majesty and tolerance, hushing mockery and dispelling doubt; and all three nations giving out to the world the good that God has infused into them.”

Dr. M. Gaster said he stood before them not as a new Zionist, but as an old friend. He stood before them, the old Zionist, deeply imbued with the spirit of faith, believing in the truth of the word of God and the glorious promise in store for our people, a dreamer of visions, if they would. People had mocked at their visions and ideals, at their aspirations and their hopes, and yet they continued their work, unswerving in their enthusiasm. What appeared to so many as a dream had now become a reality――and they were gathered there to begin to reap in joy what they had sown in tears and sorrow. He had originally acclaimed Herzl as the leader of the movement, and he had had to bear the burden of the difficulties, but he had been true to the trust and had kept the flag of Zion flying, and it was now for him, and for all of them, a day of joy to see the fruits which they had so long wished for. They had come together to thank the British Government for _le beau geste_, in the inimitable French, for their declaration of sympathy with their national aspirations. But Zionism was neither a local question nor did it affect English Jewry, except in a very small proportion. It was a movement which affected the whole of the race. Every Jew, therefore, wherever he might be, was united in that sentiment of gratitude. They were there, representing the feeling which animated the Jews of all the world. Therein lay the greatness of the British Government――that it had lifted the problem from its local geographical character and given to it that universally valued importance which they attached to it. But what Zionism stands for must be clearly apprehended, and also what the Declaration of the British Government was expected to embody. The term “National Home” was a circumlocution of the original word which formed part of the Basle programme, the foundation-stone of Zionism, and that word had been chosen when no definite political meaning could be assigned to it. Circumstances had changed. It was for them to give to the word its true original meaning. What they wished to obtain in Palestine was not merely a right to establish colonies, or educational, cultural, or industrial institutions. They wanted to establish in Palestine an autonomous Jewish Commonwealth in the fullest sense of the word. They wanted Palestine to be Palestine of the Jews and not merely a Palestine for Jews. They wished the land to be again what it was in olden times and what it had been for Jews in their prayers and in their Bible――a land of Israel. The ground must be theirs. They stood, indeed, as a people for the same programme as British statesmen were standing to-day in a larger sphere. Jews stood for reparation, restitution, and guarantees, and it was in the very application of those principles that the greatness and importance of the Declaration of the British Government stood out so luminously. England owed to Jews no reparation. Here they had liberty, full freedom, equality of right and equality of duty, and they had risen to the responsibility which had thus been placed upon them. For many of them there had their children now fighting the battles of England. But the British Government had now made itself the champion of reparation to the Jewish people for the wrongs done to them by the world. It had made itself a champion, too, of the restitution of the land to our nation for whom it is the old inheritance, and it had given them a guarantee――security of tenure, independence, right and freedom of action as a people, in their ancient land. The establishment of a Jewish Commonwealth in the land of their fathers would also consolidate and clarify the position of the rest of the Jews throughout the world. He believed that a new world was to arise in which the Jew as Jew would find himself a free man. In conclusion, he reminded them of an old legend which told that when the Temple was destroyed the stones were split into splinters and each one entered the heart of a Jew. It was this memorial of our fallen nation which the Jew carried in his bosom, and which bent his back. But they were coming together once again as a nation in Palestine, and they would take the splinters of the stones from out of their hearts――“and,” exclaimed Dr. Gaster, “I feel the stone in my heart already loosening.”

Sheikh Ismail-Abdul-al-Akki then addressed the meeting. He spoke in Arabic, which was translated by Mr. Israel Sieff, who mentioned that the speaker was under sentence of death by the Turkish Government for having joined the Arab national movement. Sheikh Ismail said he desired to tender deep gratitude to the British nation and the British Government for affording his countrymen and himself help and asylum in their hour of persecution. His country was held in chains by the Turks, who were supplied with German gold, and he looked with confidence to England and France to deliver them from bondage, as he believed in the ultimate good over evil, and was confident in the victory of the Allies. He not only spoke as an Arab, but as a “Moslem” Arab, having studied five years in theological schools and being granted a degree, and it was the duty of every Moslem to participate in the movement for the liberation of their countrymen. The meeting was to celebrate the great act of the British Government in recognizing the aspirations of the Jewish people, and he appealed to them not to forget in the days of their happiness that the sons of Ishmael suffered also. They had been scattered and confounded as the Jews had been, and now began to arise, fortified with the sense of martyrs. He hoped that Palestine would again flow with milk and honey.

M. Wadia Kesrawani, another Arabian representative, spoke in French, also to the effect that his countrymen appealed to England and France for their liberation, and applauded the Declaration of the Government.

Mr. Israel Zangwill, in supporting the resolution, said: “In my capacity of President of the Jewish Territorial Organization, I have been honoured with an invitation to appear on your platform on this momentous occasion. In that capacity I have often criticized your leaders. But to-day I am here not for criticism, but for congratulation and co-operation. I congratulate them, and especially Dr. Weizmann and Mr. Sokolow, upon their historic achievement in the region of diplomacy. To see that this is followed by a similar achievement in the more difficult region of practice is the duty of all Israel. Particularly is it the duty of the Ito, founded as it was to procure a territory upon an autonomous basis. For the Ito to oppose any really practicable plan for a Jewish territory would be not only treason to the Jewish people, but to its own programme. And as a first-fruit of the friendly negotiations with Zionism, which began in July, I am happy to be able to join with you this afternoon in welcoming the sympathy of the Government with Jewish aspirations.”

Mr. Zangwill, of whose speech the above were the opening words, spoke at great length, and with even more than his usual brilliancy. It is with great regret that we are unable, owing to lack of space, to include the rest of his oration, with the exception of the concluding paragraph, which ran as follows:――

“And though our goal be yet far, yet already when I recall how
our small nation sustained the mailed might of all the great
Empires of antiquity, how we saw our Temple in flames and were
scattered like its ashes, how we endured the long night of the
Middle Ages, illumined by the glare of our martyrs’ fires, how
but yesterday we wandered in our millions, torn between the
ruthless Prussian and the pitiless Russian, yet have lived
to see to-day the bloody Empire of the Czars dissolve, and
the mountains of Zion glimmer on the horizon. Already I feel
we may say to the nations: Comfort ye, comfort ye, too, poor
suffering peoples. Learn from the long patience of Israel that
the spirit is mightier than the sword, and that the seer who
foretold his people’s resurrection was not less prophetic when
he proclaimed also for all peoples the peace of Jerusalem.”

Capt. the Hon. W. Ormsby-Gore, M.P., said he was particularly glad the Zionist Declaration had been made by the British Government at a moment when British arms were saving that land, because it showed that the British Government was not out for gain. The Jewish claim to Palestine was, to his mind, overwhelming, and he rejoiced to see what an overwhelming mass of British representative opinions in the House of Commons was now supporting the movement. He supported it as a member of the Church of England, as Sir Mark Sykes had supported it as a Roman Catholic. In the return of Palestine to be the Jewish home, he held out the hand of friendship to the Zionists, who sought to bring it into effect. He felt that behind it all was the finger of Almighty God. From the moment he met their Zionist leaders, whether in Egypt or in this country, he felt there was in them something so sincere, so British, so straightforward, that at once his heart went out to them. They had in their leader in this country a man of great qualities, a statesman who had shown a skill, a determination, and a patience which had endeared him to everyone. He (the speaker) had done what little he could to help forward the movement, and in the future, if they were looking out for a friend, they could count him as one of them.

Mr. H. N. Mostditchian, a member of the Armenian delegation, said he availed himself of the opportunity of giving their Jewish brethren the heartiest greetings of the Armenians and sincerest congratulations for the dawn about to break upon the glad valleys of their ancestral land. He made a comparison of the two nations, who had gone through the same persecutions, but who notwithstanding were not willing to die, and had not died, and who stood to-day hand-in-hand on the eve of a new era, when both of them would be able to live once more their national lives, of which they had given good evidence in the past. They all knew that Armenia was one of the first countries mentioned in the History of the Jews, and there had reigned one thousand two hundred years ago a Dynasty of Armenian Kings who had in their veins a good deal of Jewish blood. After the loss of their independence the Jews had continued to live a life of captivity and exile, and the Armenians, after the loss of their independence, had suffered the same exile. It was not the time to say what the Armenians had suffered during the last three years, a state of things to which the worst pogrom was a heaven, but they, as well as the Jews, looked towards ‘to-morrow’ with great fervour as a result of the Declaration. They had waited long enough with their Jewish brethren, for centuries and centuries, and these two nations, as well as the Arabs, would make Palestine another promised land and a garden of Eden――a centre to which humanity might look up.

The author then proceeded to read a statement in behalf of the Executive of the Zionist Organization. The text of that statement is given later.

Mr. James de Rothschild said he stood there as the son of one who had spent his life in endeavouring to bring about what they were celebrating that day. Jewish ideals up to that time had been met at the gate, but they could not get through. With one stroke of the pen the English Government had flung open these gates. Therefore in every Jewish heart gratitude was overflowing, and they must not forget that all their aims of the future had been strengthened by the country whose Government had framed the generous and just Declaration.

Dr. Ch. Weizmann, President of the English Zionist Federation, referred to the many good and brilliant words which had been said about the Jews, and he hoped that the Jews of to-day and the Jews of to-morrow would rise to the occasion in the needed power and dignity, and give their answer to the great resolution, not only in words, but in deeds. It was a fact, and no metaphor, that twenty centuries looked to see if their actions were worthy of the opportunity which the British Government had given them. The present generation had upon its shoulders the greatest responsibility of the last two thousand years, and he prayed that they might be worthy of that responsibility.

He then called upon the meeting to rise, and with hands uplifted to take the old historic oath――each man and woman of them――

אם־אשכחך ירושלם תשכח ימיני.¹

¹ “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem,
Let my right hand forget her cunning.”
(PSALM cxxxvii. 5.)

The meeting rose _en masse_, repeating the words of the psalm amid great enthusiasm, which culminated in the singing of “Hatikvah” (the Jewish national song) and “God Save the King” by the Precentors’ Association.

Lord Rothschild, in rising to put the resolution, said it was a great honour for all of them to feel that they as Jews had met with a sincere welcome that day from representatives of no fewer than five different religions. He then read the resolution, which was carried with acclamation, the whole audience rising.

Among those who sent messages to the meeting were the following:――

From the Right Hon. VISCOUNT GREY OF FALLODEN, K.G.¹

I am in entire sympathy with the Declaration made by Mr.
Balfour, and am very glad that this has been announced
publicly as the view of the British Government.

¹ Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 1905‒1916.

From the Right Hon. WALTER LONG, M.P.¹

Mr. Long desires me to thank you for your letter of the 14th ult., and to say that he wishes all success to the Zionist movement.

¹ Secretary of State for the Colonies.

From the Right Hon. ARTHUR HENDERSON, M.P.¹

Labour recognizes the claims generally of Jews in all
countries to the elementary rights of tolerance, freedom of
residence and trade, and equal citizenship, that ought to be
extended to all the inhabitants of every nation’s territory.
Further, it trusts that an understanding may be reached at
the close of the war, whereby Palestine may be set free and
form a State under an International Agreement, to which Jewish
people may return and work out their own salvation without
interference by those of alien race or religion.

¹ Member of the War Cabinet.

From the Right Hon. the MARQUESS OF CREWE, K.G.¹

I have long hoped that it would be possible to make such a
Declaration; and it is now pronounced in terms that should
be equally welcome to those Jews who have found happy homes
on friendly shores, and to those who have longed for the
re-establishment of their race in the ancient land. Within its
borders even now triumphs are being won, and noble lives laid
down, for the common cause of which this hope forms part.

¹ Secretary of State for India, 1910‒1915.

From the Right Hon. VISCOUNT BRYCE.¹

For years past, and especially since my visit to Palestine in
1914, I have been in cordial sympathy with the movement for
re-establishing the Jewish population in its ancient home,
and rejoice to see that His Majesty’s Government have recently
expressed their approval of the idea, which will, I hope, take
practical shape in measures to be put through after the war is
over. It will be a great benefit to the Jewish race everywhere
to have this ancient home to look to as the centre of its
national life, even though a comparatively small part of the
race can actually find room to dwell in Palestine. The country
seems to have been recently terribly devastated, but when its
resources have been developed, it can support a much larger
population than it has under the blighting rule of the Turk.
Syrians, Arabs and Armenians are also interested in being
delivered for ever from the alien domination of the Turkish
invaders.

¹ H.M. Ambassador at Washington, 1907‒1913.

From the Right Hon. the EARL OF SELBORNE, K.G., G.C.M.G.¹

I warmly and altogether adhere to the policy of His Majesty’s
Government, in sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations as
announced by Mr. Arthur Balfour.

¹ High Commissioner for South Africa, 1905‒1910.

From the late JOHN EDWARD REDMOND, M.P.¹

I am in complete sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations as I
understand them.

¹ Chairman of the Irish Parliamentary Party.

From the Right Hon. LORD BALFOUR OF BURLEIGH, K.T., G.C.M.G., G.C.V.O.¹

I am in favour of the establishment in Palestine of a National
Home for the Jewish people, and sincerely trust the policy
will be successfully carried out.

¹ Secretary for Scotland, 1895‒1903.

From the Right Hon. JOHN HODGE, M.P.¹

I fully sympathize with the view expressed in Mr. Balfour’s
letter to Lord Rothschild, and further, may I express the hope
that the end of the war may speedily see the realization of
the Zionist dream.

¹ Minister of Pensions.

From LORD HUGH CECIL, M.P.

... I very cordially sympathize with the purpose of it, and
heartily rejoice that there is good prospect of securing to
the Jewish people a National Home in their own country.

From LORD SYDENHAM of Combe, G.C.M.G., G.C.I.E., G.C.S.I.¹

... I am in fullest sympathy with the object, and I am glad
to know that Palestine may again become the National Home of
the Jewish people. This would be one of the many happy results
which, we may hope, will arise from the appalling sacrifices
and the abiding sorrow which the war has brought upon the
world.

¹ Governor of Bombay, 1907‒1913.

From the Right Hon. LORD EMMOTT, G.C.M.G.¹

... The movement for the establishment in Palestine of a
National Home for the Jewish people is one which has my most
cordial sympathy, and I sincerely hope that your demonstration
may be a success.

¹ Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, 1911‒1914.

From the Right Hon. LORD TENNYSON, G.C.M.G.¹

... It seems to me that the establishment in Palestine of a
National Home for the Jewish people would make for the peace
of the world. This Jewish State should be, as George Eliot
finely says, “a republic where the Jewish spirit manifests
itself in a new order founded on the old.”

¹ Governor-General of Australia, 1902‒1904.

From the Rt. Rev. JAMES COOPER, D.D., Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.

The Church of Scotland cordially endorses the Declaration
of the Cabinet in favour alike of the establishment in
Palestine of a National Home for the Jewish people, and of the
maintenance of the civil and religious rights of non-Jewish
communities in a land so dear to Christians and Jews, rejoices
in the prospect of this double honour being given to Great
Britain, and prays that it may usher in a day of the richest
blessings to the whole Israel of God.

From HIS EXCELLENCY BOGHOS NUBAR PASHA, President of the Armenian National Delegation.

On the occasion of the Zionist meeting, organized by your
Committee, I am happy, as President of the Armenian National
Delegation, to renew the sincere congratulations of the
Armenians for the Declaration which His Britannic Majesty’s
Government has made to you. We participate in a great measure
in the joy which the powerful support gives you which permits
us to hope that in the day of victory of those who are
fighting for the liberation of oppressed peoples, the Armenian
aspirations will be realized at the same time as the Jewish
people will attain the reconstruction of its nationality
and the realization of its historic claim to the soil of its
ancestors.

The _Jewish Chronicle_ gave a list of several hundred Jewish institutions in England which sent congratulatory messages to the meeting, as well as of an immense number of such institutions which were represented at the meeting in person.

An overflow meeting, over which Mr. P. Horowitz presided, was held in the Kingsway Theatre, which was crowded in every part. Among those who addressed the audience were the Chief Rabbi: Lord Lamington, G.C.M.G., G.C.I.E., Mr. Israel Zangwill, Mr. Joseph Cowen, Dr. Selig Brodetsky, Dr. David Jochelmann, and Mr. Israel Cohen.

In the course of his observations, Lord Lamington, who was very cordially received, expressed his pleasure at the opportunity afforded him to express his sympathy with and support of the Zionist movement. He cordially agreed with the statement made by Lord Robert Cecil at the Opera House, that the Declaration represented the first act of constructive statesmanship which the allied nations had so far carried out on the basis of the great principles of freedom and justice for the smaller nationalities, for which they stood. The Declaration was as much in the British interest as in the Jewish interest. Both races, as well as the East in general, stood to gain, and gain substantially, from an active British and Jewish co-operation in the Near East.

A resolution in identical terms with that carried at the London Opera House was passed with much enthusiasm.

The Author’s statement ran as follows:――

The Zionist Organization in the Entente countries which I have the honour of representing is filled with feelings of the deepest and keenest satisfaction caused by the Declaration of His Majesty’s Government of November 2nd. The Zionist masses are grateful to His Majesty’s Government for their official and formal statement of their intentions in clear and unmistakable terms. Posterity will praise the qualities which are revealed by this historic document; the strength of will, the sentiment of uprightness, the unshakable fidelity to the spirit of Justice, and the beneficent and generous sympathy for the oppressed.

But the feeling of joy evoked by the Declaration is much more than the legitimate satisfaction aroused by the successful result of our representations to the British Government. Quite apart from and above all written conventions, we realize that the Declaration symbolizes that harmonious union of spiritual ideals and political considerations which have made and will make of the Zionist Movement a precious instrument working for civilization and for the brotherhood and emancipation of all oppressed peoples and for their final deliverance from the sad heritage of age-long hatreds and misunderstandings, which have dismembered them and subjected them to the forces of oppression.

Three problems confront the world at this hour: the problem of nationality, the problem of territory, and the problem of liberty. Nationalities are being reconstituted; peoples are seeking one another, joining together, or separating from one another; territories are being redistributed; the spirit of freedom is spreading, seeking incarnation in new forms, and giving a new lease of life to ancient peoples. Everywhere is instability, ferment, movement; from all sides are heard complaints, demands, claims; all things are being recast in new moulds; everywhere new groupings are forming round new interests. The world is fighting for the untrammelled self-expression of nations and races, for an unaggressive international order; the hundreds or thousands of years’ old aspirations, purposes, and aims of nations have become the demands of the moment and the programmes for the future. He only would be certain of harvesting nothing who had not sown during the present world storm. In this noise, in this welter, in this struggle, ancient Judea awakes, claiming her right to live again. This right is inalienable and unalterable. All the force of the indestructible Jewish race is in it. All the sadness of the two thousand years of Jewish martyrdom is in it. Is this right to be denied because of its being so old? Humanity, real humanity, will not extinguish old rights. It has not extinguished it in the case of Greece; neither will it extinguish it in the case of Judea.

History has demonstrated that a nation deprived of its heritage and liberty, which is determined to live and regain her lost country, no matter how long she suffers, cannot be exterminated by any conceivable means employed by her persecutors. And the Jewish people is determined to live and to work for all that is good and ennobling, believing firmly that justice would be but a word of mockery if the sun of liberty could not shine over it again.

In the midst of universal war, amid grief and desolation which go beyond the most tragic imaginings, Great Britain has proclaimed the idea of creating a centre of the arts of peace, and a model of justice. The idea is not only extremely practical, it is profoundly poetical. We are living in the most critical time in history. It is our fate to be spectators of and actors in the greatest drama ever known to humanity. The present war will take its place in history as one of the events which irrevocably divide two epochs. The Jewish people is fortunate in being able to consider itself one of the models which have inspired the noble initiative of Great Britain and her Allies. It is still more fortunate in having been found worthy of the generous protection of His Majesty’s Government, manifested in so striking a manner by the recent Declaration. And what glory awaits, on the other hand, Great Britain and her Allies, if they will be instrumental in the creation of a Jewish National Home in Palestine!

What is it that we wish to preserve in our National Home? Our own precious heritage. You all know it. The sacred Jewish home-life, the intimately personal sentiment of our qualities and of our inner freedom. That is our heritage which we have been able to preserve intact during the eighteen centuries of our Dispersion, untouched by the ambition and hatred which sought to undermine them. We wish to live and to live by our labour and untiring efforts. We want to be invigorated by that force which the children of the soil absorb from contact with it. We want to give form and visibility to our mental conceptions. We desire to perform Israel’s allotted part in the purpose of the eternal progress of humanity in all branches of life, in all human activities. The Jewish National Home will stand out in the world as an inspiring symbol of the triumph of justice over tyranny, as a proof of the right of nationality to be itself. It will be a priceless monument to the future at a time when ruins of the past are everywhere, and the whole world stands in need of rebuilding.

Our object in establishing the Jewish National Home on the sacred soil of our fathers is to carry on the noblest traditions of our race in all their beauty and plenitude. Judea it was which revealed to humanity the path of progress, it was Judea which taught the greatest and noblest lessons in the life of nations――the lessons of Freedom and Right――and it is Judea which will become a centre of liberty and a blessing for the nations. Palestine is not to be weighed down by military powers. She is a home for a small and free nation, and not for a troop of subjects. The glory of invaders is to be conquered by humanity. The glory of tyrants is to yield to civilization. The glory of the land of shadows is to receive the lamp of light. The cloud passed and the star reappeared. And this star is not one of wrath. Nor is it one of hatred, or fanaticism. Christendom has its great sanctuaries in Palestine. Islam has there some of its important sanctuaries. All our glorious holy places are there. They will be respected and safeguarded with reverence and devotion, in peace and mutual love. But around the places of worship life will spring――honest, simple, pure life. We are a peaceful people. We are going to cultivate the soil; we are going to cultivate our ideas. Our future is the ploughshare, and not the sword; the book, and not the bullet. The beneficent spiritual influence of a regenerated Palestine is undoubted; its future, which is boundless, belongs to you; each of you already possesses a portion within himself. Let us but work together so that our people may preserve and improve its title to be considered the conscience of the human race.

We realize, however, that our position needs to be clearly defined. We must be fully conversant with every side of the problem. Vague complaints or expressions of yearning are not enough. There is, first of all, the problem of Emancipation. We have been accused of endangering by our aspirations towards a National Home the position of the Jews in the various countries of the world. We have racked our brains in trying to discover how the establishment of a National Home in Palestine could possibly harm the emancipation of Jews in the world. We have failed to solve this mystery. The British Government in their Declaration have put to flight this fear, which is a pure figment of the imagination without foundation in theory or fact. It would undoubtedly be a great elevation of the Jewish character in the eyes of the world at large, could the Jews prove themselves capable of conducting a Commonwealth harmoniously and successfully; and we are sure they will be able to do so. This is our belief, our ambition, our Jewish optimism. It is because we believe in Israel’s genius that we are Zionists. This will help emancipation. The Jews of the various countries who do not wish to participate actively in the work, who do not desire to take advantage of the right to settle in Palestine, can remain where they are at the present time. We are not emigration agents. We are apostles of a historic ideal, and we want the Jewish people to help in its realization.

It would be a crime at a stage of Jewish history like the present to paralyse by internal dissension a movement which may be productive of so much good. This should not be. Unity of Judaism before all, above all! The majority will support the efforts of their fellow-Jews with great enthusiasm for Judaism, and those who refuse to take any part (a type which is doomed to disappear, like the mammoth, from the face of the earth) must keep the peace. The least we can demand of them is not to disturb us or hinder us in our efforts. Where is the Jew who could neglect this duty which is inspired no less by reason and well-understood interest than by conscience and honour? Where is the Jew who would fail to offer the tribute of his humble share of effort, of help, and of faith to the old land of Israel, now so downtrodden, but all the greater and more beautiful, as its sufferings and trials――so heroically endured――are approaching their end and leading to its renascence which, far from being a mere satisfaction of national egoism, is an exaltation of the noblest Jewish and human ideal?

The attempt has also been made to put forward the non-Jewish population of Palestine and the neighbouring countries as an obstacle in our way. The breath of intriguers tends to poison every noble aspiration; they seek to create among us also a spirit of dissension, a spirit of destruction. We are firmly resolved to refuse them this satisfaction. In vain do they raise this kind of bogey. The deep sense of the realities before us guards us from any error of this kind. We have work to do which will prevent our interests from clashing with those of the Arabs. Are we, then, anti-Semitic?

The relations between the Jews and the Arabs have hitherto been scanty and spasmodic, largely owing to mutual ignorance and indifference. There were no relations whatever between the two nations as such because the oppressive bureaucracy did not recognize either of them, and whenever points of connection began to develop they were destroyed by intrigue to the detriment of both nationalities.

We believe that the present hour of crisis and the opening of a large perspective for epoch-making developments offers a fruitful opportunity for a broad basis of permanent, cordial relations between the peoples who are inspired by a common purpose. We mean a real _entente cordiale_ between the Jews, the Arabs, and the Armenians. Such _entente cordiale_ has already been accepted in principle by leading representatives of these three nations. From such a beginning we look forward with confidence to a future of intellectual, social, and economic co-operation. We are one with the Arabs and Armenians to-day in the determination to secure for each of us the free choice of their own destinies. We look with fraternal love at the creation of an Arab kingdom re-establishing the ancient Semitic nationality in its glory and freedom, and our heartfelt wishes go out to the noble, hardly-tried Armenian nationality for the realization of their national hopes in their old Armenia.

Our roots were united in the past, our destinies will be bound together in the future.

This is our declaration to our future neighbours. And now, one more word to our brethren. We Jews, we who hoped for a better future, an era in which moral rights would count, what were we before the present situation? Dreamers and madmen. Material power believed itself unconquerable. It produced an atmosphere of indifference in which all hope seemed Utopian. We slept in the general decadence. Now we arise, endowed with an unconquerable moral force by the Declaration of His Majesty’s Government. Our first and immortal leader, Theodor Herzl, insisted, many years ago, in having the institutions of Zionism established in this great, blessed country, for which every Jew has a warm corner in his heart. Was he a statesman or a prophet? I think he was both a statesman and a prophet. There is an old Talmudical saying:――

הניחו להן לישראל אם אין נביאים הן בני נביאים הן׃
פסחים סו׃¹

¹ “Leave Israel alone!――If they are not Prophets, they are
the sons of Prophets.”――_Pesachim_, 66_a_.

Twenty years ago 220 Jews from all the countries of the world met at the First Zionist Congress at Basle. They possessed, though everything else was wanting, that wonderful power of improvising things. And such was the power of right these 220 men, having nothing to support them but the goodness of their cause, made headway against millions of opponents among their people. During the long duration of the struggle, a struggle without truce, where all the strength and rage was on one side and all the right on the other, not a single section of those 220 men failed to respond to the call of duty, and, although divided in their views, not one section drew back from the fundamental national idea, not one gave way. They increased in numbers and they increased in activity. Let me, at this solemn hour, render honour to those men, to that insulted, calumniated and misunderstood Zionist Organization which always stepped gallantly into the breach, which never took rest for a single day, and which defended Zionism even when abandoned and momentarily hopeless, and that not only with tongue and brains, but also with heavy sacrifices. Thanks to them we exist, and thanks to the progress we made here new life and new energy will enter not only into our Zionist Organization, but into the whole Jewish people. Mr. Balfour has sent the Declaration to Lord Rothschild for the Zionist Organization. We received and accepted it joyfully; but, I am afraid ――or I am rather glad――that we shall have to re-address it to the Jewish people, and I hope they will receive and accept it as joyfully as ourselves, the Zionists. This is perhaps the greatest achievement of the British Government that before having given us Palestine they already gave us something which is very precious and very necessary ――Jewish unity. History will record that Mr. Balfour was the greatest peace-maker among the Jewish people, greater than many Rabbis and Conjoint Committees.

We were divided, distracted; and now we are indissolubly united, all one band of brothers in arms for Liberty! I welcome the representatives of the Jewish Territorial Organization, with their famous leader, Israel Zangwill. I welcome the oldest Jewish organization of this country, the Board of Deputies, and all other organizations which are represented at this meeting. The opponents of yesterday are our allies of to-day, and the opponents of to-day will be our allies of to-morrow, if they will read the signs of the time. Much is still to be done in this direction, but much has already been done. Yes; this is the miracle which has brought about our spiritual rebirth.

What does this mean if not that wrong has always feet of clay: that right, truth and liberty are from this time forward the true paths of the earth, the only ways which no physical force will ever dishonour?

Friends, brothers, our new society makes of you new men. This is a day of alliance and of reconciliation. Old words――Virtue, Love, Liberty ――which had lost their brightness by long disuse have regained their lustre as on the day when they were first engraved on the heart of man. Awake from the long night. It is a new dawn which arises. The Jewish people which has endured, and will still endure, with great firmness of heart the heaviest sacrifices, rising to the heights of the great arguments of this War of Nationalities, affirms that it is ready and determined to work with all its power and full loyalty for Governments and peoples until the realization of its destiny. May this destiny be one in which Liberty will triumph――one from which man and humanity, the individual and the Nation, will derive benefit, one bringing to the Jewish people as to every oppressed people the possibility of living and of realizing its ideal. It is in this spirit that the Zionist Organisation recommends to you the resolution.

On the 14th of December the Zionist representatives, Lord Rothschild, Mr. James de Rothschild, Dr. E. W. Tschlenow, Dr. Chaim Weizmann, and the Author, were received by the War Cabinet. They offered to the British Government the gratitude of the Jewish people for the Declaration of the 2nd November and at the same time expressed their congratulations on the occasion of the capture of Jerusalem. Mr. Bonar Law, who replied to the deputation on behalf of His Majesty’s Government, thanked them for the kind sentiments they had expressed.

The following Manifesto was issued shortly after the British Declaration:――

TO THE JEWISH PEOPLE.

The 17th of _Marcheshvan_, 5678 (2nd November, 1917), is an important milestone on the road to our national future; it marks the end of an epoch, and it opens out the beginning of a new era. The Jewish people has but one other such day in its annals: the 28th August, 1897, the birthday of the New Zionist Organization at the first Basle Congress. But the analogy is incomplete, because the period which then began was Expectation, whereas the period which now begins is Fulfilment.

From then till now, for over twenty years, the Jewish people has been trying to find itself, to achieve a national resurrection. The advance-guard was the organized Zionist party, which in 1897 by its programme demanded a home for the Jewish people in Palestine secured by public law. A great deal was written, spoken, and done to get this demand recognized. The work was carried out by the Zionist Organization on a much greater scale and in a more systematic manner than had been possible for the _Chovevé Zion_, the first heralds of the national ideal, who had tried to give practical shape to the yearning which had burnt like a light in the Jewish spirit during two thousand years of exile and had flamed out at various periods in various forms. The _Chovevé Zion_ had the greatest share in the practical colonization. The Zionist movement wrestled with its opponents and with itself. It collected means outside Palestine, and laboured with all its strength in Palestine. It founded institutions of all kinds for colonization in Palestine. That was a preface, full of hope and faith, full of experiments and illusions, inspired by a sacred and elevating ideal, and productive of many valuable and enduring results.

The time has come to cast the balance of the account. That chapter of propaganda and experiments is complete, and the glory of immortality rests upon it. But we must go further. To look back is the function of the historian; life looks forwards.

The turning-point is the Declaration of the British Government that they “view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a National Home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object.”

The progress which our idea has made is so colossal and so obvious that it is scarcely necessary to describe it in words. None the less, a few words must be addressed to the Jewish people, not so much by way of explanation, as to demand the new and greater efforts which are imperative.

The outstanding feature of the Declaration is, that what has been a beautiful ideal――and according to our opponents an empty dream――has now been given the possibility of becoming a reality. The aspirations of 1897 now find solid ground in the British Government’s official Declaration of the 2nd November, 1917. That in itself is a gigantic step forward. The world’s history, and particularly Jewish history, will not fail to inscribe in golden letters upon its bronze tablets that Great Britain, the shield of civilization, the country which is pre-eminent in colonization, the school of constitutionalism and freedom, has given us an official promise of support and help in the realization of our ideal of liberty in Palestine. And Great Britain will certainly carry with her the whole political world.

The Declaration of His Majesty’s Government coincides with the triumphant march of the British Army in Palestine. The flag of Great Britain waves over Jerusalem and all Judea. It is at such a moment, while the army of Great Britain is taking possession of Palestine, that Mr. Balfour assures us that Great Britain will help us in the establishment of a National Home in Palestine. This is the beginning of the fulfilment.

To appreciate and to understand accurately is the first essential, but it is not all. It is necessary to go further, to determine what is the next step. This must be set forth in plain words.

The Declaration puts in the hands of the Jewish people the key to a new freedom and happiness. All depends on you, the Jewish people, and on you only. The Declaration is the threshold, from which you can place your foot upon holy ground. After eighteen hundred years of suffering your recompense is offered to you. You can come to your haven and your heritage, you can show that the noble blood of our race is still fresh in your veins. But to do that you must begin work anew, with new power and with new means――the ideas and the phrases and the methods of the first period no longer suffice. That would be an anachronism. We need new conceptions, new words, new acts. The methods of the period of realization cannot be the methods of the time of expectation.

In the first place, the whole Jewish people must now unite. Now that fulfilment is displacing expectation, that which was potential in the will of the Jewish people must become actual and reveal itself in strenuous labour. The whole Jewish people must come into the Zionist Organization.

Secondly, a word to our brothers in Palestine. The moment has come to lay the foundations of a national home. You are now under the protection of the British military authorities, who will guard your lives, your property, your freedom. Be worthy of that protection, and begin immediately to build the Jewish National Home upon sound foundations, thoroughly Hebrew, thoroughly national, thoroughly free and democratic. The beginning may decide all that follows.

Thirdly, our loyal acknowledgment of the support of Great Britain must be spontaneous and unmeasured. But it must be the acknowledgment of free men to a country which breeds and loves free men. We must show that what Great Britain has given us through her generosity, is ours by virtue of our intelligence, skill, and courage.

Fourthly, we must have ample means. The means of yesterday are ridiculously small compared with the needs of to-day. Propaganda, the study of practical problems, expeditions, the founding of new offices and commissions, negotiations, preparations for settlement, relief and reconstruction in Palestine――for all these, and other indispensable tasks, colossal material means are necessary, and necessary forthwith. Small and great, poor and rich, must rise to answer the call of this hour with the necessary personal sacrifice.

Fifthly, we need discipline and unity. This is no time for hair-splitting controversy. It is a time for action. We ask for confidence. Be united and tenacious, be quick but not impatient, be free men, but well-disciplined, firm as steel. From now onwards every gathering of Jews must have a practical aim, every speech must deal with a project, every thought must be a brick with which to build the National Home.

These are the directions for your work to-day.

Worn and weary through your two thousand years of wandering over desert and ocean, driven by every storm and carried on every wave, outcasts and refugees, you may now pass from the misery of exile to a secure home; a home where the Jewish spirit and the old Hebrew genius, which so long have hovered broken-winged over strange nests, can also find healing and be quickened into new life.

M. SOKOLOW.
E. W. TSCHLENOW.
CH. WEIZMANN.

DECLARATIONS OF THE ENTENTE GOVERNMENTS

After this most important achievement which is considered as the foundation-stone of future policy in and regarding Palestine, it was found necessary to come into closer political relations with the other Entente countries, in the light of the new situation created by the British Declaration.

Negotiations were carried on with the proper authorities in the French and Italian Governments: the negotiations were crowned with success, and the official endorsements by France and Italy of the British Declaration were communicated to the world in the following official documents:――

The following is the text of the French Government’s Declaration communicated in a letter to the author:――

République française.

Ministère des Affaires Étrangères:
Direction des Affaires Politiques et Commerciales.

Paris, _le 14me février, 1918_.

MONSIEUR,

Comme il a été convenu au cours de notre entretien le Samedi 9 de ce mois, le Gouvernement de la République, en vue de préciser son attitude vis-à-vis des aspirations sionistes, tendant à créer pour les juifs en Palestine un foyer national, a publié un communiqué dans la presse.

En vous communiquant ce texte, je saisis avec empressement l’occasion de vous féliciter du généreux dévouement avec lequel vous poursuiviez la réalisation des vœux de vos co-religionnaires, et de vous remercier du zèle que vous apportez à leur faire connaître les sentiments de sympathie que leurs efforts éveillent dans les pays de l’entente et notamment en France.

Veuillez agréer, Monsieur, l’assurance de ma consideration.

(_Signed_) PICHON.

M. SOKOLOW,
Hôtel Meurice, Paris.

Le Communiqué.

Monsieur Sokolow, représentant des Organisations Sionistes, a été reçu ce matin au Ministère des Affaires Etrangères par Monsieur Stéphen Pichon, qui a été heureux de lui confirmer que l’Entente est complète entre les Gouvernements français et britannique en ce qui concerne la question d’un établissement juif en Palestine.

[_Translation._]

République française.

Ministère des Affaires Étrangères:
Direction des Affaires Politiques et Commerciales.

Paris, _14th February, 1918_.

SIR,

As arranged at our meeting on Saturday, the 9th of this month, the Government of the Republic, so as to make definite its views on the subject of Zionist aspirations with regard to the creation of a Jewish national home in Palestine, has sent a communication to the Press.

In sending you this text, I wish to take the opportunity of congratulating you on the splendid devotion with which you are furthering the aspirations of your co-religionists, and of thanking you for the way in which you have made known to them the sympathy with which all the countries of the Entente, and especially France, are watching their efforts.

Please accept assurances of my most cordial sympathy.

(_Signed_) PICHON.

M. SOKOLOW,
Hôtel Meurice, Paris.