tive necessity of clear thinking upon this most vital issue, and for the sake of publicly pledging our support, however humble, to the new Actions Comité, my colleagues and I issued our statement.
The Zionist democracy, like any other true democracy, is governed, in the last line, by public opinion. We conceive it to be the duty of Zionists to express themselves, from time to time, in no uncertain terms, with regard to the problems which confront the organization. Particularly at this moment it is important to sustain the arm of the Actions Comité; not only because, being fresh at its work, it naturally craves the loyalty of every man of us, but even more for the reason that the Comité is suddenly face to face, at the very beginning of its career, with an extraordinary opportunity to advance the cause; and it should act the more vigorously for the knowledge of having the rank and file of Zionists behind it.
The main business of the Actions Comité, I take it, is to demonstrate to the government and people of the Ottoman Empire the utility for the Ottoman Empire of an autonomous Jewish people in Palestine. We are witnessing in this year of grace 1911 a nation's piratical attempt to tear an outlying limb from the Ottoman body, whilst the rest of the nations declare their "neutrality." Well may the young Turks exclaim, there is no justice in Europe, no keeping of sacred troth and treaty by Christian governments! Great Britain long ago took Egypt. France has Tunis, Austria helped herself to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and now Italy seizes Tripoli vi et armis. And there is a powerful and ambitious nation still to reckon with. It is no secret that Germany
yearns to embrace Syria. For the matter of that, there is no dearth of suitors for that fair land, suitors with arguments in their fists as well as persuasion on their lips. Meanwhile, for the vital integrity of the Ottoman Empire, the possession of Palestine is indispensable. That possession is sanctioned by international law, but jeopardized by international lawlessness. Only by the exercise of imperial patriotism and strategy can Ottoman sovereignty over Palestine be made secure. A Jewish people settled there, antonomous, yet part and parcel of the Ottoman Empire, with whose total welfare its own welfare is indissolubly bound up, can, and we hope will, become the Swiss Guard of the Holy Land.
With Zion’s greetings.
Faithfully yours,
HENRY HURWITZ.
I have just read your editorial comment upon a definition of attitude toward Zionism which, together with several other gentlemen, was signed by me. Allow me to say that you have either wilfully or carelessly misinterpreted our position. It was not my intention, as one of the signers, to find fault with the work of the Actions Committee—work which they had not even begun to do. I wished, in the face of what transpired at the last Congress, to affirm publicly my unequivocal allegiance to the Basle program,
Yours very truly,
MORRIS EDMUND SPEARE.
(A reply to the above will be found on the Editorial Page.--Ed.)