“We speak of Palestine as a country, but it is not a country.... But it will be a country; it will be the country of the Jews. That is the meaning of the letter which we publish to-day written by Mr. Balfour to Lord Rothschild for communication to the Zionist Federation. It is at once the fulfilment of an aspiration, the signpost of a destiny. Never since the days of the Dispersion has the extraordinary people scattered over the earth in every country of modern European and of the old Arabic civilization surrendered the hope of an ultimate return to the historic seat of its national existence. This has formed part of its ideal life, and is the ever-recurring note of its religious ritual.... For fifty years the Jews have been slowly and painfully returning to their ancestral home, and even under the Ottoman yoke and amid the disorder of that effete and crumbling dominion they have succeeded in establishing the beginnings of a real civilization. Scattered and few, they have still brought with them schools and industry and scientific knowledge, and here and there have in truth made the waste places blossom as the rose.... The British victories in Palestine and in the more distant eastern bounds of the ancient Arab Empire are the presage of the downfall of Turkish power; the declaration of policy by the British Government to-day is the security for a new, perhaps a very wonderful, future for Zionism and for the Jewish race.... In declaring that ‘the British Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use its best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object,’ the Government have indeed laid down a policy of great and far-reaching importance, but it is one which can bear its full fruit only by the united efforts of Jews all over the world. What it means is that, assuming our military successes to be continued and the whole of Palestine to be brought securely under our control, then on the conclusion of peace our deliberate policy will be to encourage in every way in our power Jewish immigration, to give full security, and no doubt a large measure of local autonomy, to the Jewish immigrants, with a view to the ultimate establishment of a Jewish State.” (Manchester Guardian.)
The Manchester Daily Dispatch published a sympathetic interview with Sir Stuart Samuel, Bart., on the subject of the pronouncement of the Government.
Both The Liverpool Courier and The Liverpool Daily Post and Mercury devoted leading articles to the subject on the 9th of November. The former said:—
“Mr. Balfour’s letter stating the attitude of the British Government towards the establishment of a National Home for the Jews in Palestine may well be regarded as one of the most historic documents in the 5678 years of Jewish history. Its terms are eminently well considered, and the re-establishment of the Jewish National Home is to be accomplished on lines which are reasonable and just. Indeed, we note with satisfaction that the points to which we have already made reference in our consistent advocacy of the claims of Zionism (which has been thrust to the fore by world-shaking events of the past year or two) have been covered by the terms of the Government declaration.... Zionism has made a great step forward, and the world has now reason to look forward to the rise of an old-new nation in its natural home, where some of its ancient greatness may be revived in a national sense.”
The views of The Post took the following form:—
“The important official letter from Mr. Balfour, as Foreign Secretary, to Lord Rothschild, as representing the Jews, more than justifies the suggestion we lately made in a leading article that our Government might be expected to encourage the Jewish national aspiration for a home in Palestine. We further said at that time that a ‘Palestine re-peopled by a Jewry bound to the Allies, and not least to Britain, by ties of affection for righting the oldest national wrong, would be a friendly neighbour to Egypt and to the newly enfranchised territories abutting upon the Holy Land.’”
The Edinburgh Evening Dispatch expressed the following views:—
“The aspirations of the Jewish race to return to the Holy Land seem not unlikely of fulfilment. Scattered over the face of the earth, they daily turn their eyes towards Jerusalem and pray for the day when they will be restored to the land of their origin. We are fighting to-day not for aggrandizement, not for the acquisition of territory, but for the liberation of peoples crushed by the tyrant, and there is no just and reasonable demand which would not be sympathetically considered by the British Government. Our progress in Palestine has awakened in the breasts of the ‘chosen people’ fresh hopes of re-establishment in their Fatherland.”
The Glasgow Herald, writing in a similar vein, said:—
“From their aeroplanes British aviators may have obtained a glimpse of the white domes and towers of the Holy City, high upon the crest of the Palestinian ridge. That possibility is symbolic of the effect upon the Jewish world of the British Cabinet’s declaration in favour of Zionism. What has long been the dream of virtually the whole Jewish race—even of those whose inward despair expressed itself outwardly by a cynical dismissal of Zionism as the mirage of over-heated fancy—has now taken definite shape on the horizon of practical politics.”