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Buffalo Jewish Review · Buffalo, New York · 4 November 1927

CP-1927-006

British Statesmen Praise the Jewish Achievements in Palestine Since Issuance of Balfour Declaration

Lord Balfour, Lloyd George, Lord Robert Cecil, General Jan Smuts and Sir Herbert Samuel Reaffirm Necessity of Palestine as National Jewish Homeland; $7,500,000 to Be Raised for Palestine Next Year

British Statesmen Praise the Jewish Achievements in Palestine Since Issuance of Balfour Declaration — Buffalo Jewish Review, 4 November 1927
Buffalo Jewish Review · Buffalo, New York · 4 November 1927

Transcribed from the clipping

“Four leading British statesmen, in messages addressed to the national conference on Palestine under the auspices of the United Palestine Appeal which concluded its sessions in Cleveland, Ohio, last night, reaffirmed the terms of the Balfour Declaration, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of its issuance. The national conference on Palestine, which was attended by twelve hundred representative Jewish men and women from all parts of the country… decided upon raising $7,500,000 for work in Palestine during the next year.… the Cleveland Conference was intended as a tribute to Lord Arthur James Balfour, who, as Foreign Minister in the British Cabinet, addressed a letter to Lord Walter Rothchild on November 2nd, 1917, which read: ‘His Majesty’s Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly undersood that nothing shall be done whch may prejudice non-Jewish communities in Palestine or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.’… Lloyd George Regards Declaration as Binding. ‘Tested by the events of the past ten years the policy embodied in the Balfour Declarative of 1917 has been amply justified. A regenerated Palestine is in the making, and the Jews are playing their full part in the work of reconstruction… The Balfour Declaration, now incorporated in the Mandate for Palestine is a pledge of British sympathy and goodwill. It is a pledge which will be strictly honored… Let the Jews do their part and Great Britain can be relied upon to do hers.’… Lord Balfour Sees Jewish Home Assured. ‘Ten years have now elapsed since the Declaration on Zionism made by me on behalf of the British Government in 1917. Nothing has occurred during that period to suggest the least doubt as to the wisdom of this new departure. The experiment was admittedly a bold one, dealing with a unique situation in a manner wholly without precedent in history. I am, however, convinced that, if it be supported by Jewish communities throughout the world, its success is assured, and that a home will be secured for the Jewish race in the land which is immemorially associated with their name.’… General Smuts Calls Balfour Declaration One of Notable Events of History. ‘The Balfour Declaration is one of the notable events in history, and its true importance will be realized much more in the decades to come… All throughout the long centuries Palestine remained for the Jews a foreign land and the promise remained in abeyance. Then came the Great War in which their history oppressors suffered crushing defeat, even to the verge of extinction. And from that awful judgment seat of history came at last the pronouncement known as the Balfour Declaration…’ Sir Samuel Reviews Jewish Achievement in Palestine. ‘When the Balfour Declaration was issued in November, 1917, in the very crisis of the World War, what prophetic eye could have forseen the results ten years after? Palestine severed from the Turkish Empire and become a separate state; Great Britain charged with its guardianship; the Jewish population of the country multiplied threefold…’”

Context added by this archive

The Declaration as printed here is missing seven words. The letter Balfour sent reads “nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.” This paper prints “nothing shall be done whch may prejudice non-Jewish communities in Palestine,” so the clause naming civil and religious rights is gone while the clause protecting the rights and political status of Jews in other countries survives intact. The same sentence also carries two plain typesetting errors, “undersood” and “whch,” and this archive does not claim to know whether the omission is a third one. The words are transcribed here exactly as the paper set them. Read again at full resolution on 24 September 2026: the omission and both typesetting errors are confirmed on the page. The rest of the column is the four statesmen in their own words, including Jan Smuts describing the country as one that had remained for the Jews a foreign land throughout the long centuries, and Herbert Samuel counting the Jewish population as having multiplied threefold in ten years. Nobody in twelve hundred delegates or four messages mentions the people the missing clause protected.

Cite this item

"British Statesmen Praise the Jewish Achievements in Palestine Since Issuance of Balfour Declaration," Buffalo Jewish Review, 4 November 1927. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1927-006. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1927-006

Elsewhere in the archive

This record is part of Covering Palestine, an archive of American and Anglophone newspaper clippings about Palestinians, 1812 to 2022. Researched and assembled by Maria Robles.

The clipping belongs to the newspaper that printed it, or to the wire service that supplied the copy. It is reproduced here for research, criticism and commentary. The city is derived from the masthead, not read off the clipping.

Something wrong here, or something you know about this clipping? The archive is still being built and corrections are wanted: maria@rozumstudio.com, quoting CP-1927-006.

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