chase of land, while the other half, together with the total amount of interest, must remain untouched until colonisation on a larger scale is possible.
Under no consideration, not even under the circumstances last mentioned, may the Jewish National Fund be completely chausted. The sum of at least £100,000 shall always be retained to provide for further accumulation."
The administrations of this indeterminate Fund was placed in the hands of the Executive Committee of the movement (the so-called "Small Actions Comité") who were to possess the right to control the cash and accounts, to determine from time to time the conditions on which the Jewish Colonial Trust should act as a place for deposits, and to supervise the investment of the money collected in suitable securities. To the Greater Actions Comité was confided the power of deciding whether the conditions which would justify the purchase of land out of the Fund had been fulfilled, and also as to what purchases should be made; and it was further charged with the task of endeavouring to obtain before the next Congress the establishment of the National Fund on the legal basis of a "juridical person," Commission of lawyers of different countries being appointed to assist it in carrying out this object. A final Resolution declared:—
"By the immediate adoption of this scheme and the consequent immediate coming into life of the Jewish National Fund it is not excluded, but on the contrary expressly provided, that the determination of the legal and commercial capability of the Jewish National Fund shall be adapted to the different legal requirements of the various countries."
The Commission of lawyers was set to work to produce a constitution which should satisfy these somewhat conflicting ideas and objects, and all the different forms of Union—Company, Friendly So-
ciety, Association, Foundation,—were discussed and tried. To each and every one of these objections were found, and all the legal difficulties created by the original Resolutions was added a new one by the discovery that, in Turkish Law—under which, of course, the lands in view in Palestine and Syria were to be acquired—land could not be purchased in the name of a “juridical person,” so that the form of a Trust (which the creation of the new “juridical person” was intended to void) would in any event be essential; at least for that purpose.
Fresh legal drafts were still being considered when the Congress of 1903 came together, and from the Report on the Fund which was then presented it appeared that a sum of nearly £20,000 had already been collected which was held simply on the terms of the previous Resolution, and a vast international machinery had been inaugurated and was in active operation without any definite legal basis. The situation was at once further complicated— in the absence of any fixed Constitution— by the adoption of new Resolutions, varying materially from those previously accepted. By these amendment it was provided that the objects of the Fund should be:—
"To purchase in Palestine and neighbouring countries building, agricultural or gardening land as well as forests and farms of every kind, to get the purchased land cultivated or worked upon or to let the same to Jews without the right to sublet, to found and encourage all conceivable and possible undertakings furthering this object, for the purpose of obtaining or retaining possession to enter into agreements of every kind with a view to further this object, and for these purposes to negotiate with industrial or financial undertakings, as well as with Governments and Corporations."
It was further resolved that the purchasing of land could be immediately commenced before the £200,000 previously