CHAPTER II.
The Sanballats.
On the 27th July, 1917, while I was stationed at the Curragh in command of a Battalion of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, I got a telegram from the War Office ordering me to report there and commence the organization of the Jewish Legion about to be raised, so I set out forthwith for London.
On getting my instructions from Major-General R. Hutchison, the Director of Organization, he told me, among other things, that a certain Sergeant Jabotinsky would probably be most useful to me, for he was a very keen worker and an ardent advocate of the Jewish Regiment. I told him that I had already met Jabotinsky, and I knew his assistance would be invaluable, and requested that he might be attached to me for duty at once.
I was given a room at the War Office Annexe which had been taken over from the National Liberal Club. Here I was joined in due course by Jabotinsky, now a full-fledged sergeant.
We had hardly begun to move in the matter of recruiting for the Jewish Regiment, when I became aware that in certain quarters of influential English Jewry there was violent hostility to Zionist aspirations, and also to the very idea of a Jewish Regiment.
I therefore felt that, in order to clear the air, it would be necessary to hold a meeting of those who were in favour of, as well as those who were opposed to, the formation of a Jewish Regiment, and try to induce the latter to cease obstructing a policy which had already been decided upon by the British Government, and to give me their help in making the proposed Regiment a success.
A meeting of representative men on both sides was held at the War Office on the 8th August, 1917. Among those present were: Lord Rothschild, Major Lionel de Rothschild, Major Neil Primrose, Captain Ormsby Gore, M.P., Mr. Sebag Montefiore, Dr. Weizmann, Mr. Joseph Cowen, Dr. Eder, Captain Salaman, R.A.M.C., Mr. M. J. Landa, Mr. L. J. Greenberg, the Rev. S. Lipson (Senior Jewish Chaplain to the Forces in England), and Sergeant Jabotinsky—about twenty in all. Colonel Sir Mark Sykes, M.P. (whose untimely death I deeply lament), and Lieut.-Colonel L. S. Amery, M.P., who were then Secretaries to the War Cabinet, also attended, both being warm friends of the movement.