Zionism

In 1922 resolutions associating the United States with the policy embodied in the Declaration were unanimously adopted by both Houses of Congress. At the instance of Great Britain, a Zionist delegation was given a hearing by the Peace Conference in Paris on Feb. 27, 1919, but it was not until April 24, 1920, that the Supreme Council of the Allies, at its meeting at San Remo, formally agreed that Palestine should be placed under a British mandate and that Great Britain should be responsible for carry ing the Balfour Declaration into effect.

British Mandate for Palestine.

In Dec. 1920, the proposed terms of the Palestine mandate were submitted by the British Government to the League of Nations for confirmation by the Council. There was a succession of unforeseen delays, but a slightly modified draft was eventually approved by the Council at its meet ing in London on July 24, 1922. A few weeks earlier, the British Government had issued a statement of British policy in Palestine, in which it interpreted the Balfour Declaration as meaning, "not the imposition of a Jewish nationality upon the inhabitants of Palestine as a whole, but the further development of the existing Jewish community, in order that it may become a centre in which the Jewish people, as a whole, may take, on grounds of religion and race, an interest and a pride." The mandate came into full operation on Sept. 29, 1923. In its final form, it recites the Balfour Declaration in the preamble, and includes among its provisions various articles dealing with Jewish immigration.

Although a Zionist commission was sent to Palestine with the approval of the British Government in the spring of 1918, little practical work could be done until well after the close of the war. The foundation stone of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem was laid on Mount Scopus in July 1918, but the Zionist commis sion was mainly pre-occupied with relief work in the liberated areas, where the Jewish settlements had suffered severely.

Zionism at Work.

The return to normal conditions was marked by the San Remo decision of April 1920, which was fol lowed by the establishment in Palestine of a civil administration in the following July. Subject to the general control of the Gov ernment, the Zionist Organization was now for the first time in a position to bring in immigrants and to purchase land. Between 1918 and 1936 about 280,000 Jews immigrated to Palestine, of whom 61,854 entered in 1935. During the same period there were

about 30,00o Jewish emigrants, of whom about 25,000 were post war settlers, leaving a net immigration of about 255,000. The Jew ish population, which was about 95,00o in 1914, was reduced during the war to about 55,000. It was returned at 84,00o at the census of Oct. 1922, was officially estimated at 108,000 in March 1925, and had risen to nearly 400,000 at the end of 1936. The area of land in Jewish possession rose from 177 sq.m. in 1914 to 545 sq.m. in 1936, and the total Jewish population of the rural areas from 13,00o to 90,000. With the exception of about 30 sq.m. of State and waste lands, all the land acquired since the war has been bought, often at inflated prices, in the open market, and in addition to the heavy expenditure in which they have thus been involved, the Jewish National Fund and other Jewish bodies have had to sink large amounts of capital in improvements, in cluding in particular the drainage of marshes. There has been a considerable increase, which has been particularly marked since 1924, in the Jewish population of Jerusalem and Haifa. In the neighbourhood of Jaffa, the Jews have built up the rapidly expanding urban settlement of Tel Aviv, which had in March 1937 a population of 140,00o, as compared with 13,000 in Dec. 1922, and 2,000 in Aug. 1914. The rapid growth of the towns is connected with the industrial development of Palestine, which in turn is largely due to the influx of private Jewish capital. In 1933 it was estimated that since 1920 4,055 industrial enter prises had been established in Palestine, representing in the aggre gate an investment of 14,500,00o, which was predominantly Jewish. An important factor in the industrial and general development of Palestine is the Palestine Electric Corporation, which has been largely financed from Jewish sources and which is already supply ing Jaffa and Haifa with electric light and power.

Education.—Since the war, the Jewish organizations have largely extended the scope of their educational work in Palestine. At the end of 1935 they controlled 492 schools of various and categories with 51,314 pupils. Public health work on a large scale is done by the Hadassah Medical Organization, the Jewish National Council, and other Jewish bodies. A Jewish technical institute was opened at Haifa in Feb. 1925 and the Zionist Organization also maintains an agricultural institute at Tel Aviv.