The interest of Mr. C. P. Scott, Mr. H. Sidebotham, also of The Manchester Guardian but now of The Times, and other non-Jewish friends in Manchester in the Zionist Movement led to the establishment in that city, in the autumn of 1916, of the British Palestine Committee, formed to further the establishment of a Jewish commonwealth in Palestine, under British protection. In the words placed in the forefront of its programme: “The British Palestine Committee seeks to reset the ancient glories of the Jewish nation in the freedom of a new British dominion in Palestine.” The activities of this Committee have displayed themselves for the most part through its press organ, Palestine, which, appearing weekly, supplies the influential public among which it circulates with valuable information on all matters relating to Palestine, and at the same time discusses all the phases of international politics which touch upon the Palestine question in any of its facets. In addition to Palestine the Committee is responsible for two publications, England and Palestine, by Mr. H. Sidebotham, in which the author puts the case for a British mandateship, and British Projects for the Restoration of the Jews, a pamphlet by Mr. Albert M. Hyamson, wherein he sketches the attitude of British statesmen and publicists towards the projected restoration of the Jews to Palestine during the century and more that preceded the outbreak of the European War of 1914.
XVIII. ([vol. ii., p. 54)]
In the earlier part of the year 1917, about the date of the opening of the London Bureau of the Zionist Organization, the present writer, being the only member of the Inner Actions Committee in England, felt it desirable to give some definite status to those trusted supporters of the Zionist cause to whose advice Dr. Weizmann and he were continually informally having recourse. The constitution of the Organization did not permit of any definite responsibility being assigned to them. It was therefore possible to form only an Advisory Committee, without any executive authority. The Political Committee that came into existence at that time, and continued its existence until the arrival in England of a number of the members of the Greater Actions Committee enabled that constitutional Organization to resume its functions, was composed originally of Ahad Ha’am, Mr. Leopold Kessler, Mr. Joseph Cowen, Mr. Herbert Bentwich, Mr. Albert M. Hyamson, Mr. Simon Marks (who acted as Honorary Secretary), Mr. Harry Sacher, Mr. Israel Sieff, Mr. Leon Simon, two foreign Zionists—M. J. Ettinger, of the Jewish National Fund, and M. S. Tolkowsky, of Rechoboth, Palestine—who were temporarily resident in London, together with Dr. Weizmann and the present writer as chairman.
[♦]CORRIGENDA
Volume I.
Page xxvii. Six lines from the bottom. For “See the Chapter on Zionism and the War” substitute “See Volume II., pp. 1 ff.”
Page xl. Line 9. Delete “Arthur,” substitute “Albert.”
Line 22. Delete “Moro,” substitute “Morot.”
Line 23. Delete “Andre,” substitute “André.”