rived at by the Conference and the mission of the deputation was to be kept secret and not communicated to the authorities in Vienna. As to financial arrangements, it was agreed to leave to the Actions Committee in Vienna to apply for funds after the interview with Dr. Herzl. If the new Russian Committee considers it advisable to forward money to Vienna, it will so instruct the financial administration, but if the Committee should be in doubt whether the application is justified, the district-presidents will be specially consulted. 5,000 roubles were voted towards the expenditure of the new Russian Central Committee.
THE RUSSIAN STATEMENT.
M. V. Temkin (President), MM. Bernstein-Cohan, Bruck, Belkovsky, Goldberg, Rosenbaum, Ussishkin, Jacobson, and Sheinkin (Secretary), Russian members of the Greater Actions Comite, have issued from St. Petersburg .a statement dated the ı (13) January, in which as District-Presidents they submit to ‘their constituents a review of the situation wlich has led to the present crisis in the ‚Zionist Movement. The Conference held at Charkoff in November, decided to send three ‚delegates to negotiate with Dr. Herzl on the ‚policy of the East Africa prpject and other matters connected with the Movement. Now, ‚after the return of the delegates from Vienna, the proceedings of the Conference are made public. :
The Russian members of the Actions Committee claim to have acted entirely for the purpose of maintaining the original interpretation of the Basle programme. Prof. Belkovsky and M. Rosenbaum went to Vienna to submit to Dr. Herzl the resolutions of the Conference. The mission led to no result. The President of the Actions Committee did not even think it necessary to consider the demands. Yet, although the district-presidents differ in certain cardinal points from Dr. Herzl, and, thanks to the agitation initiated against them in Die Welt, some delegates are demanding their resignation, they consider it their duty to look also further after the interests of the Movement. They hope, nevertheless, that the decisions arrived at at Charkoff will, sooner or later, be ratified by Zionists in all parts of the world.
The District-Presidents recall that, at the Conference of the Russian delegates in Basle, the question of the organisation of the Zionist activity in Russia was left to a special Commission composed of District-Presidents and some delegates, and, if the Commission could not act, the matter was to be decided by a Conference As a consequence, nine District-Presidents and two delegates were constituted at Basle into a Special Commission. At that time it was also decided to transfer the financial centre from Kiev to Wilna. After the Basle Congress, the Zionist Movement was found to undergo an inner disorganisation in Russia, owing to the appearance of the East Africa scheme. Two diametrically opposed tendencies showed themselves, and engaged in a self-destructive struggle. The heads of the Movement in Russia, therefore, considered it a dutv to take action.
A letter from Dr. Herzl to one of the Russian Zionist authorities showed that he had not a proper view of the functions of the members of the Actions Committee or of the position of the Russian Zionists. The Central Committee, faced by all this chaos, did not feel justified in acting on its own responsibility, and consequently convened their colleagues to a Conference at Charkoff, at which all the Russian official leaders of the Movement, with the exception of Dr. Jelski, were present. The points at issue were to be those connected with the East Africa project and the position of the Russian members of the Actions Committee.
The Conference, which was presided over by Dr. Bernstein-Cohan, lasted four days. The questions dealt with were those relating to the Small Actions Committee and its President, Dr. Herzl; the regulations of the Zionist organisation and the East Africa project. The resolutions arrived at on these matters, the demands to be made of Dr. Herzl and the terms of the Ultimatum to be presented him in case of his non-acceptance of the Charkoff decisions are given above.
Until the return of the deputation, it was agreed to withhold sending Shekel moneys to Vienna.
As regards the internal organisation of the movement in Russia, an Executive Council of