Again, in a letter to Viscount Milner, dated January 3, 1903, he wrote:—
“All the freedom and equality of rights of the British Jews, the happy situation even of foreign Jews in the British Colonies, and the humane protection which England’s Government grants, by their protests against the persecution of our brethren, all this is a bond which unites us all closely to your glorious nation.... Some day, we shall be able to prove our gratitude to Great and Greater Britain.”
England was made, almost as a matter of course, the home of the financial institutions of Zionism: the Jewish National Fund, the Jewish Colonial Trust and the Anglo-Palestine Company are registered as English Companies. Hence English Zionists have had a position and an influence in the movement which would hardly have been warranted on the ground of mere numbers. Conditions have, however, been unfavourable to any rapid growth of the organization in this country. The official Jewish community, with its rather parochial view, long looked askance at Zionism, and until quite recent years those who followed Herzl have been a minority struggling hard against a vast amount of prejudice and of indifference. None the less, such English Zionists as Dr. M. Gaster (Haham of the Spanish and Portuguese Congregations), Herbert Bentwich, Joseph Cowen, L. J. Greenberg and Israel Zangwill (who left the movement after some years to found the Jewish Territorial Organization) have played a prominent part in shaping Zionist policy; and more recently, as we have remarked above, a group of younger men has come forward.
If Herzl had the intuition as to the importance of England, it may fairly be said that England more rapidly than any other Power recognized the significance of Herzl’s movement. The holding of the fourth Congress in London in 1900 evoked a great deal of favourable comment in the English Press (Appendix lxxxiv). And more official recognition was not wanting. In 1902 Herzl was invited to give evidence before the Royal Commission on Immigration. That fact alone sufficiently indicates that the title of Zionism to a voice on a question affecting large masses of Jews was accepted in England, even in those early days of the movement, as a matter of course. But a still more striking recognition of Zionism on the part of the British Government was to follow before long.
In October, 1902, the Executive of the Zionist Organization entered into negotiations with the British Government for part of the Sinai Peninsula to be granted to the Jews with powers of self-government. These negotiations broke down owing to certain stipulations on the part of the Egyptian Government, and the Colonial Office then made the Zionists an offer of territory in British East Africa. The terms of this offer are contained in a letter of the 14th August, 1903, to Mr. L. J. Greenberg in regard “to the form of an agreement which Dr. Herzl proposes should be entered into between His Majesty’s Government and the Jewish Colonial Trust, Ltd., for the establishment of a Jewish settlement in East Africa.” The letter states that the Marquis of Lansdowne (then Foreign Minister) “has studied the question with the interest which His Majesty’s Government must always take in any well-considered scheme for the amelioration of the position of the Jewish race.... If a site can be found which the Trust and H.M. Commission find suitable, Lord Lansdowne will be prepared to entertain favourably proposals for the establishment of a Jewish colony or settlement on conditions which will enable the members to observe their national customs ... the scheme comprising as its main features the grant of a considerable area of land, the appointment of a Jewish Official as the chief of the local administration, and permission to the colony to have a free hand in regard to municipal legislation as to the management of religious and purely domestic matters, such local autonomy being conditional upon the right of H.M. Government to exercise general control.” This announcement gave rise to considerable excitement in the Zionist camp. The most ardent Zionists believed that it meant that Zionism was to give up its efforts for the acquisition of Palestine and to regard the settlement in East Africa as its goal, and they accordingly, and rightly, opposed this presumed alteration of the original programme. Others maintained that this alteration was never contemplated. British East Africa was not to take the place of Palestine, but only to serve as a place of temporary refuge for those unfortunate Jews who, under the horrible conditions imposed upon them, could not live in the unfriendly countries of their birth, and wait there until Palestine became a Jewish country. After most exciting debates, the Sixth Congress finally adopted a proposal to express the thanks of the Jewish people to the British Government for its magnanimous offer, which was unique in history, and to send a commission of experts to East Africa to investigate the territory. Even this tentative acceptance of the scheme in principle was bitterly opposed by a large section of delegates, especially those from Russia, who viewed with profound distrust any deviation from the pure Palestinian programme. The Commission of enquiry started on its journey towards the end of the year 1904, and in May, 1905, presented its report, which was not favourable enough to justify Zionist action for the purpose of establishing a Jewish colony. The death of Herzl had taken place in the meantime (3rd July, 1904).
The British East Africa offer not only precipitated a crisis within Zionism, but also—and herein lies its significance—raised Zionism to the rank of a political movement of international importance, and demonstrated the interest of the British Government in a solution of the Jewish problem. But after this brilliant success circumstances brought it about that the movement had virtually to leave for a time the political arena into which Herzl had taken it, and to concentrate on the strengthening of its organization and the development of the Jewish holding in Palestine. The results achieved in both fields have amply compensated Zionism for the comparative absence of réclame and of more sensational triumphs. It is, indeed, largely thanks to the quiet constructive work of the ten years preceding the outbreak of war, that the movement is to-day in a position to assert with confidence its claim to a hearing in the peace settlement.
Meanwhile, however, the opportunity was lacking for any further co-operation between the British Government and Zionism. This was partly due to the course taken by British policy in the Near East, with which we shall deal in the next chapter. But there was no diminution of the sympathy shown by English thinkers and writers for the Zionist idea. We quote here a few characteristic utterances of this later period, the period of Zionism in its modern form.
As early as 1896 Holman Hunt, the famous painter, advocated the Zionist idea in its most radical form, that of a Jewish state in Palestine. A contribution to the columns of the Jewish Chronicle, 21 February, 1896, p. 9, entitled “Mr. Holman Hunt on the Resettlement of the Jews in Palestine,” contains a letter addressed by him from Draycott Lodge, Fulham, Jan. 6th, 1896, to an eminent Jew, which expresses ideas similar in every way to those of Dr. Herzl. He saw looming in the distance an approaching war “which would entail the destruction and maiming of countless legions of the choicest men of the noble races of the civilised world, and with this would come the disappearance of wealth, and the ruin of the richest....” “He sought a remedy against the impending evil, and was led to suggest the restoration of Palestine to the Jews, both for the sake of the advantages which would accrue to the Jews themselves and in order to remove a bone of contention out of the way of the European Powers.” “Palestine will soon become a direful field of contention to the infernally armed forces of the European Powers, so that it is calculated to provoke a curse to the world of the most appalling character. Russia and Greece will contend for the interests of the Greek Church, France and Italy for the Latin, Prussia and Austria for the German political interests.... In addition to the above-named certain contenders for Palestine, there would be England....” Holman Hunt spoke like a prophet, though not in every detail.
Nor was the actual colonizing work in Palestine without recognition in the English Press:—[¹]
[¹] The Times, Monday, May 8, 1899, p. 12.