Great Britain and Zionism, 1917.
Mr. Balfour to Lord Rothschild.
Foreign Office,
November 2nd, 1917.
Dear Lord Rothschild,—I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty's Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet:—
"His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."
I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.
Yours sincerely,
Arthur James Balfour.
(Times, November 9, 1917.)
APPENDIX.
INTERNATIONAL ANTI-SEMITISM IN 1498.
The earliest appearance of the Jewish Question in international European politics—or rather the earliest reference to it in the British State Papers—happened in 1498, shortly after the great expulsion of the Jews from Spain. In that year Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain sent a mission to England on business connected with Prince Arthur's marriage. The mission was apparently instructed to deal with the Jewish Question. The envoys expressed to the King their sorrow that, while Spain had been purged of infidelity, Flanders and England were infested by that scourge. Thereupon, according to a dispatch from the chief of the mission, Henry VII, laying both hands on his breast, swore that he would persecute without mercy any Jew or heretic that the King or Queen of Spain might point out in his dominions.