The Welsh people are renowned for their intense patriotism and loyalty, and by training and temperament make good citizens, invariably lending their influence and support to every effort to advance the interests of the cities and towns wherein they may chance to reside and it is estimated that there are in Montreal, at the present time, from one to two thousand Welsh people. Some of them are large employers of Canadian labor, and the majority of them are interested in the manifold forces at work of beautifying and making known the varied advantages, present and prospective of this regal and beautiful metropolis of the Dominion of Canada.
THE NEWFOUNDLAND SOCIETY
The youngest National Society formed on lines similar to the foregoing was founded in September, 1911.
Its presidents have been as follows:
| 1911-12 | F.M. Renouf |
| 1913 | C.A. Peters, M.D. |
| 1914 | W.A. Gaden |
The object of the Society was to encourage Newfoundlanders who were migrating to other lands to settle in Canada under the British flag and to welcome them when in the city with information to enable them to succeed here.
A great opportunity offered itself to the members in 1914, when on the occasion of the great Newfoundland sealing disaster in March of that year, it organized a relief fund in the city and realized a sum of $13,000, which was forwarded to the Newfoundland Government.
THE ZIONIST MOVEMENT
The Jewish community, whose earliest settlers and prominent citizens will be noticed elsewhere, has not been regarded as possessing a national society as such, although the Baron de Hirsch Institute, now long founded, has been the centre of charitable activities for Jewish immigrants. Of late years, however, there has arisen a movement which may have a place here.
Montreal is the head centre of the Zionist Movement in the Dominion, and the executive offices of the Federation of Zionist Societies of Canada are situated in this city. No Jewish body in this country counts as large a membership or is as thoroughly representative of the entire Jewish population of Canada as the Zionist Movement, for it has its branches in every city, town and village from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The first Zionist society was founded in Montreal in January, 1898. Among its founders were Clarence I. de Sola, Rev. A. Ashinsky, H. Bernstein, L. Aronson, Lazarus Cohen, Jacob Cohen, Leon Goldman, J.S. Leo, Rev. Meldola de Sola, Dr. D.A. Hart and Moses Shapiro. From small beginnings this movement, having for its object the re-establishment of the Hebrew nation in Palestine, spread with phenomenal rapidity, and within one year from its foundation so numerous had the branches become that they were formed into a federation under a central federal executive. This was in December, 1899. The enormous strides which the organization has made is shown in its ever-increasing revenue and membership from year to year. Its conventions have become one of the striking events of Jewish communal life in this country. At the eleventh convention, held in Toronto in December, 1910, the Canadian Zionist Federation started the undertaking of establishing a Jewish agricultural colony in Palestine with funds entirely contributed by members of the movement in Canada. This enterprise was carried through so successfully that at the thirteenth convention, held in Montreal in 1913, the president was able to announce that the establishment of the first colony had been completed and the work of establishing a second colony was begun. This convention was also rendered noteworthy by President de Sola’s plea for the restoration of the Jewish Sanhedrin in Palestine, a plea which attracted world-wide notice and received the approval of many of the leading Jews throughout the world. The present executive of the Zionist Federation counts among its officers some of the most capable and active workers in the Jewish community of Canada. To mention them all would entail the giving of a long list, but among the Montrealers, in addition to those already mentioned above, are A. Levin, who is treasurer; M. Markus, Rev. Nathan Gordon, Rev. H. Abramowitz, Joseph Fineberg, L. Heillig, Mrs. Clarence de Sola, Mrs. J.S. Leo, and H. Lang.