6. To collect information, and report upon the possibilities of the further development of the Jewish settlement and of the country in general.
7. To inquire into the feasibility of the scheme of establishing a Jewish University.
In order to be able to achieve the foregoing objects the Commission obtained permission, subject to military necessities, to travel, investigate, and make reports upon the above-mentioned matters.
The Commission left London on March 8th. It consisted of:—
Dr. Chaim Weizmann, the Chairman of the Commission; Mr. Joseph Cowen, Director of the Anglo-Palestine Company; Dr. Eder, Medical Adviser, Representative of the Jewish Territorial Organization; Mr. Leon Simon, selected to be Chairman of the Relief Committee of the Commission; and Professor Sylvain Lévi, Collège de France. Mr. Israel M. Sieff, of Manchester, acted as Secretary to the Commission.
Two representatives of Italian Jewry joined the Commission after an interval of some time—Commendatore Bianchini and Dr. Artom.
The Commission was accompanied by the following gentlemen: Mr. Aaron Aaronsohn, Agricultural Expert, formerly of the Jewish Colony of Zichron Jacob; Mr. David Levontin, Manager of the Jaffa branch of the Anglo-Palestine Bank; Mr. Rosenack, Agent of the Jewish Colonization Association, and Mr. Walter Meyer of New York.
Major the Hon. W. Ormsby-Gore acted as Political Officer and communicated the Commission’s views and requirements to the Government and the military authorities.
It had been intended that representatives of the Jews of Russia should join the Commission, but the disorganization of communications in Russia caused by the revolution prevented them from doing so until about October, 1918, when Mr. Isaac Goldberg and Mr. Israel Rosoff started for Palestine.
A few isolated incidents alone can be referred to here out of a large amount of work which was done by the Commissioners. They succeeded in obliterating the ill effects of warfare, they restored refugees to their homes, restarted the normal course of peaceful activities, reorganized the hitherto unsatisfactory and disunited Jerusalem communities belonging to the old settlements of pre-Zionist times and pre-Zionist feelings, and extended the Hebrew system of schools.