Washington (Oct. 24)
Influential American Zionist leaders have formulated plans for invoking the good offices of the United States in the controversy which has arisen between the British government and Jews over the Jewish National Home in Palestine, it is asserted in a copyrighted article on the front page of the Evening Star by Frederic William Wile, noted Washington correspondent.
Mr. Wile states that “unless the the House of Commons in London in the meantime repudiates the program just promulgated by the government, whereby drastic restrictions upon Jewish immigration and land purchase in Palestine are decreed, American Zionists will seek to bring about strong representations by the United States. Congress will not have reassembled very long in December before protest action will be called for, the purpose of such action would be to have the State Department, through formal diplomatic channels, bring to Great Britain’s attention the resentment felt in this country, both among Zionists and non-Jews toward ‘perfidious Albion’s’ new course in Palestine.
“The United States’ interest in taking note of what the Zionists term the ‘violation’ of the Palestine Mandate rests upon the American-British Palestine Mandate Convention, December 3, 1924. The Convention was signed at London on that date by Austen Chamberlain, then British Foreign Secretary, and Frank B. Kellogg, who was the American Ambassador to Great Britain. The Convention was ratified by the Senate on February 20, 1925, and by
President Coolidge on March 2, 1925. The President officially ‘proclaimed’ the Convention in December, 1925.
“The purpose of our Palestinian treaty with Great Britain was not only to assure the United States every right in mandated territory that the World War conquerors of Germany and her allies acquired, but particularly to give effect to the resolution of Congress with reference to Palestine. In 1922 the Senate and the House of Representatives enacted a joint resolution reading, ‘That the United States of America favors the establishment in Palestine of a National Home for the Jewish People, being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice civil and religious rights, Christian and all other non-Jewish communities in Palestine, and that holy places and religious sites in Palestine shall be adequately protected’.
“Initiated by George Harvey, the American Ambassador in London, and by the Earl of Curzon, British Foreign Secretary, negotiations for the American-British Palestine Convention were carried on for more than two years. It appears to have been first suggested from the British side that the treaty should contain ‘a specific allusion to the policy of establishing a National Home for the Jewish people’.
“The Zionist plans to seek American official support in protest against the British Palestinian program are of special importance because of the suggestions just put forward in London as to the future of the World Zionist Organization. Dr. Chaim Weizmann, who has resigned from the organization’s presidency, mentions that its headquarters may be transferred to the United States, and that Justice Louis D. Brandeis, of the United States Supreme Court, would be a logical head of the Zionist forces henceforward.”
After referring to the fact that Felix M. Warburg and Justice Louis D. Brandeis are the largest industrial American investors in Palestine, Mr. Wile states that American financial interests in Palestine far outstrip those originating in any other country and that hundreds of American citizens of Jewish origin are settled there and are rendering yeomen service in economic, financial, agricultural, engineering and cultural developments.
At far as American Zionists are concerned, Mr. Wile continues to say, they are far from being disposed to throw up the sponge because “of a cruel betrayal in trusteeship” for according to types such as Mr. Warburg and Justice Brandeis, who are so enthusiastic over progress already achieved and so confident that the future Palestine holds even more of promise for world Jewry, they seem to feel the hour, however black it may seem at the moment, as one for renewed hope and effort, and not discouragement or despair.