The Maccabaean

the Legion, also divided the party. Practically of course, the Jewish Legion stirred up the deepest enthusiasm among the Poale Zion, who became the most ardent and devoted Legioneers and inflamed the whole movement. And recently there arose a new and very important issue in the party regarding its connection with the Zionist Organization; a question of especial importance in the light of the fact that the Zionist Organization at its convention in Pittsburgh accepted a social program for Palestine on the lines of Poale Zionism.

Of Poale Zionism. The Convention agreed to a compromise resolution on the question of language. Without making any decision as to the problem of which language, Hebrew or Yiddish, is the national language, the Convention declared itself for the equality of both languages in school, government institutions and parliament in Palestine. The only merit of this resolution is its equivoque. On one hand it leaves the decision of the language-question to the evolution of Jewish life in Palestine, and that is practically a resolution in favor of Hebrew. There cannot be any doubt about it that the Jewish population in Palestine will choose for its life in Palestine no other language but Hebrew. And it is the most absurd thing to think that any one in Palestine will advocate the linguistic dualism, which is the sign of decomposition and cultural misery for a nation. This resolution for the equality of both languages cannot have any practical effect on Palestine, but it demonstrates on the other hand the change of mind of the Poale Zion party, which no longer identifies itself with the revival of Hebrew culture and stands now, for the benefit of the party unity, helpless and without pivot in the question of the language.

It was in the spirit of the party, when the Convention accepted resolutions for a Jewish World Congress and a permanent Congress. The Jewish Congress is mostly the work of the Poale Zion. And it re-echoed the spirit of the

party, when the Convention expressed on several occasions its admiration for the heroes of the Jewish Legion, although the Central Committee refused a year ago to publish the appeal for the Jewish Legion in the party organ.

As to the question of the Zionist Organization the Convention declared once more its allegiance to the Zionist World Congress and its connection with the Zionist world movement. It even took a step nearer the Zionist Organization, when it passed a resolution demanding that a joint committee of the Poale Zion and the Zionists shall take care of all the Palestinian problems which fall under the jurisdiction of American Zionists.

But the main resolution, which gave color to the whole Convention, was the resolution to organize a Co-operative Colonization Society and to establish a financial institute in order to promote immigration and co-operative colonization in Palestine. There are many reasons to believe that such a Co-operative Colonization Society, where every member will have to pay from 300 to 500 dollars, will win the deepest sympathy of the Jewish workingmen and get not thousands but tens of thousands of members. The workingmen themselves will bring together millions for co-operative colonization of Palestine and will found through their own money the credit basis of the society. The land, of course, will be rented to them by the National Fund for long duration. If the workingmen themselves will demonstrate their will to go to Palestine and to help colonize it through their labor and savings, the financial colonization institute of the party will be entitled to the most sincere sympathy and support on the part of all Jewry.

And if the party will go over to action and construction in Palestine, we all will reconcile ourselves with the change of mind of the party, and put a good face on the bad compromise in the name of action and unity of action.

Of all the departments of the Commission's work, I think that perhaps the relief work is the one on which it is most difficult to give a satisfactory report in the course of a brief speech. Relief work is very largely a matter of detail, and a report on relief work should contain a mass of statistics, the recital of which would make a speech certainly dull and probably unintelligible. I will endeavor to strike the middle course. I must give you a certain amount of detail, but I will subordinate that to certain main points which I wish to impress upon you. Let me say at the outset that when I speak of Palestine I shall be referring to that part of Palestine which was in British occupation when the Commission arrived there, because, of course, we could not extend our operations to the northern part of Palestine; so that Palestine for my present purpose means the Jewish portion of Jerusalem, Hebron and Jaffa, and the Jewish Colonies in Judæa.

As you know, one of the tasks laid upon the Commission was that of organizing the administration of relief to the Jewish population of Palestine. The Commission accepted that task, knowing quite well that it was not on the direct line of our Zionist activities, of national activities, but feeling that it could

not refuse responsibility for alleviating distress among the Jews in Palestine. And in order that the work might receive due attention, while in Cairo the Commission decided to set up a Relief Department, of which I was made Chairman for the time during which I was with the Commission. Our first business was to get into relations with a Special Committee in Cairo which had been responsible up to that time for Jewish relief in Palestine. We came to an arrangement by which that Committee ceased to exist as an independent committee and became merged in the Relief Committee of the Commission as its Cairo branch, and represented the Commission in Cairo when we got to Palestine. For instance, if we wanted any food or stores or medicine, we telegraphed to Cairo, and the Cairo branch would make the purchase and send the goods on to us. The goods might arrive in two or three or four weeks, or not at all, but that was not the fault of the Cairo branch; it was due to the scarcity of material and the difficulty of transport. These difficulties complicated the work of relief enormously.

CO-OPERATION WITH LOCAL COMMITTEESIn Palestine itself the Special Committee had been in touch with local committees in

Jerusalem and Jaffa, which administered relief in those centers, and the Commission's Relief Department in its turn had to enter into relations with these local committees and to strengthen and to some extent to take over their work. The problem divided itself into two sections. There was on the one hand Jaffa and the Colonies, and on the other hand Jerusalem and Hebron. As regards Jaffa, the problem was simple. The civil population of Jaffa was evacuated in April, 1917, by the Turks, and only a certain proportion had been able to return. The Jewish population was reduced from ten or twelve thousand to about three thousand. Work was not scarce at Jaffa, and the general conditions of life were not bad, and, above all, Jaffa has the advantage of having as its neighbor the Hebrew settlement of Tel Aviv.

EFFICIENT ORGANIZATION OF JAFFA COMMUNITYThe Jewish community had a Committee which was responsible for the organization of the whole of the communal life, including charity, so that we found in Jaffa already charitable organizations, including a hospital and an orphanage, under efficient management, and all that was needed practically was funds. Thus when the Relief Department had ex-