The Maccabaean

A WAR involving the whole world necessarily brought before the Peace Conference new hopes and new dreams. Even the so-called wrongs that were to be righted were in the perspective of history recent wrongs. Only one cause that came before the Peace Conference had the truth of ancient glory and the ardor of future hope. That was the Zionist cause. The compulsion behind Zionism was the compulsion of an ancient civilization, which continued its strain throughout history, that still lived, and still lives. The time had come to give that spirit an adequate, and native home, its ancient home. For had not the war been fought that this be not a world of uniformity, not an absolutism imposed from above, but a world of diversified and varied civilizations, in which each people was to bring its special gifts under its fitting environment, nourished by the affections of its enduring past?

Such was the case, put with simple dignity before the Peace Conference in February of this year—that the Jewish people is; that the world still needs its contribution; and to have its contribution, it must set aside for that people the land to which it belongs by spirit, by tradition, by hopes, of suffering and achievement—Palestine.

To emphasize, and almost to vindicate the cause, for the first time in the history of an international tribunal, standing before the bar of the world, so far as that could be assembled in a single room, the Zionist cause, the Jewish cause, was pleaded in colloquial, living Hebrew.

From this case there was no dissent. There could be no dissent. There will be no dissent. The matter, of course, so far as formal proceedings are concerned, is still open. But one can say that the Zionist cause, though not in form, has been accepted by the Peace Conference. The formality simply is lacking. The spiritual finality has been attained.

What is it that will achieve the formality, as well as the spiritual finality? Not armies, though Jews unostentatiously, gallantly and quietly played their part in the war as others did; and with special memory do we recall the symbolic contribution of the Jewish Legion. Not the arts of diplomacy, nor the subtle propaganda of a modern civilization; for the Zionist representatives in Paris did not resort to those arts. No, not even secret treaties or private understandings, for our cause, long before the Paris Conference assembled, lived in the open light of day. We came there under the Balfour Declaration, first uttered by Great Britain, and assented to by all the Powers.

But even the Balfour Declaration was merely the recognition, and not the establishment, of a spiritual fact. That spiritual fact was the persisting vitality of the Jewish people, and the persisting desire of the Jewish people to exert and fructify that vitality in Palestine. That spiritual fact,

the Peace Conference could not and did not deny. That spiritual fact will in due course of time be translated into legal documents.

The intensity with which we are now discussing the practical problems that confront us shows that practical Zionists have a proper perspective in regard to the delay in the execution of those formal documents. The substance has been attained, and we can go on. The delay in the formal documents has been inevitable. After all, Palestine, precious and unique as it is, is still only a part of the world. The statesmen in Paris have been engaged these many months in remaking, at least, the political world, and not even the political world can be remade over night. Three treaties have had precedence over the treaty in which we are especially interested. The treaty with Germany had to be disposed of, and then the treaty with Austria, followed

by that of Bulgaria; and eventually, in due course, the treaty with Turkey will be settled. We are a part of that treaty. Were we the only part matters would not be long delayed; but it is, of course, obvious that other portions of the territory which involve a liquidation of the old Turkish Empire raise questions not so easy of solution as the unanimous and unquestionable response that is to be made and will be made to a Jewish Palestine.

So we must have some little patience with the process which will solve the problems left by the war. The Turkish treaty will come along, and after the treaty there will be that new document in public law, the mandate, the document by which the powers will give authority to one of their number to govern the various countries which will be mandated, as a trustee administers the estate of

those for whose benefit the estate is held. The mandate will be the document creating the trustee.

For us, one need not be a prophet to say that England will be made the mandatory for Palestine, for a Jewish Palestine. A mandate is a very difficult and delicate document. Within its framework there must be written the general rules by which to govern the relations between the mandatory Great Britain in this case and the people for whose special benefit the mandatory is to act, the Jewish people, and other people in the land, the Arabs, and the whole outside world. It is a delicate and difficult task that will confront the mandatory, and the drafting of the document which is to set forth these relationships is a delicate and difficult task. It requires skill, patience, co-operation, expertness, imagination and faith in its execution. It requires skill, understanding, patience, and faith in its fulfilment.

The months have been dragging on wearily for those who have been at Paris, but the delay has not been wholly wasteful. “The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.” One