value, but he made the parallel statement in most emphatic and unmistakable terms on a number of occasions.

The term was heard "pressure group," and Professor Hitti of Princeton does not represent any pressure group. I represent, too, the members of which are in tragic need, the Jewish survivors of the thrice-damned Hitler regime, those surviving victims among the Jewish people who still dwell in those blighted lands. Well, that is a pressure group. I represent my people's prayers, prayers which have been uttered since the year 70 A. D. of the Christian era when Titus expelled Jews for the most part from Palestine.

We were told today that England, the United Nations, or the Allies, as they were known in 1917 and 1918, looked upon the Arabs as potential friends. They may have been potential friends but they have not borne themelves as friends and I venture with an amount of the knowledge of history to say to you the Arabs had a most insignificant part in the liberation of Palestine. General Allenby had virtually no help from the Arab, except from a handful, but the Arabs have done next to nothing for the United Nations in the present crisis.

Dr. Neumann has told you the story of Iraq going over to the coast, and Egypt and Arabia, what they have done. On the other hand, Mr. Chairman, if you happen to recall it, we had to keep down the figures of our enrollment in order that we should not outnumber them. In the British Army we had to reduce our figures to the lowest, and while 30,000 Jews enlisted under the British command and have rendered important service, most important service. If I were Dr. Hitti I would not say that the Arabs never accepted the Balfour Declaration. They have rioted, rioted, rioted continuosly for 20 years against the Balfour Declaration which after all was not the personal declaration of Mr. Balfour but represented the considered judgment, for reasons of which I shall speak, of the Allied Nations, England, America, France, with no inconsiderable amount from His Holiness at Rome.

A highfalutin term "revolution" was used. There have been assassinations and crimes led by and instigated by Hitler's personal representative, Mufti, who unhappily for civilization was pardoned by a Jew.

May I say a word about the Jewish population and the Arab? There are about 600,000 Jews in Palestine. There are somewhat over a million Arabs in Palestine. The Arabs have that vast territorial place of a million square miles in which to dwell. What have we done against the Arabs? I know Palestine and I have been in Palestine often. In 1880 the wage rate was 80 centimes. Today it runs to an increase of 500 percent, but more than that because of Jews in Palestine has not only lifted up the standards of the Arabs, but the Arabs today are free people because England intervened on their behalf. You say the Arabs control. I have seen Arabs bastinadoed by the Turks, treated with scorn and contempt. The Arabs have no part in the government, either in Palestine or any other part. They were merely condemned subjects out of whom the maximum of taxes were squeezed. I cannot understand it. I had the honor of meeting King Feisal, who was every inch a king. He was a great statesman. King Feisal was wise enough to know that lest an arrangement that was proposed to him would be of equal benefit to the Arabs and Jews

it would not be worth while, but I have heard the term. I wish I were a lawyer and understood it. I heard a term I never heard before. Professor Hitti used the term the Arabs were dispossessed by purchase. I would like to sell a house of mine in New York. I am overtaxed. Suppose I find some fellow tomorrow to purchase it and he can have it for next to nothing. In fact I am prepared to make a gift to you, Mr. Chairman, of that house for any purpose you may designate. Chairman BLOOM. I am prepared to accept it.

Rabbi WISE. I wish you would. Purchase is a legal thing and Professor Hitti neglected to say the Arabs in Palestine could only buy little tracts of land. Our whole land possession is a little more than a quarter of a million acres. One is as large as the King Ranch in Texas. We paid 50 times as much as they would have gotten if they had sold the land to one another.

Not only have they been enriched by our purchases, we have benefited the Arabs in every way.

I am here as a personal witness of the processing of the Balfour resolution. Three men were the authors of the Balfour Declaration. Their names were Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States, speaking not for himself, not for the Presbyterian Church, of which his father was a renowned pastor. Mr. Balfour spoke for England that trusted and followed him. Mr. Balfour, who knew of the historic interest and concern of the English people for centuries and centuries with everything related to Palestine. And for the Jews there was Dr. Weizmann, a great chemist and statesman, and Mr. Justice Brandeis, whom the Jews trusted and followed. I think it was the early spring when Mr. Balfour came to America. What was it that was in the heart of Mr. Balfour and Mr. Wilson representing America? He brought us proof he was one who understood the heart of America. He said he felt the world owed something to the Jews for 1917 and 1918. What would he say they owed now? The next place they felt the war of 1914-18 was a war for self determination.

That declaration was issued. My own eyes were the last to see it in America before it went back to Mr. Balfour. I am proud to say, Mr. Balfour, the President, Colonel House, and Secretary Lansing entrusted me with the privilege of returning the declaration to England.

Under the Balfour Declaration the 50,000 Jews of Palestine grew to more than a half a million, transformed the arid waste of Palestine into one of the most lovely, beautiful countries with a modern university, with hundreds of schools and developed a civilization which had never been possible but for some European Jews and American Jews. Things grew and grew, and then in 1939 there came the white paper. I was present when that unhappy document was drawn up. I venture to say while it bore the seal of the House of Commons it represents the appeasement policy of the spring of 1938 and the spring of 1939. We protested and protested and I may say to you we are amazed to think that the present eminent representative of his great country here in Washington, Lord Halifax came to the pitiful necessity of presiding over that proceeding out of which grew the white paper, an attempt to appease Hitler and his adjutant, Mufti.

There is nothing new in the term we use, the democratic Jewish commonwealth. The only thing that is new is the white paper.

I may quote Mr. Churchill. He was not the Prime Minister in 1939, but he made one of his greatest utterances in the history of the country speaking of the white paper as a betrayal of the Balfour Declaration. Mr. Churchill as early as 1922 stated the Jews are in Palestine of right and not on sufferance.

One thing more, the Jewish national home. You know, Mr. Chairman, the Jewish national home has welcomed about a quarter of a million from Hitler-dominated Europe.

Now what is it that we ask for, that all refugees may enter. No, there will not be a million. Professor Hitti may not have any fear because half of the Jewish citizens will be in Europe. I do not believe that more than one million and a half Jews in Europe today have the strength, have the will, have the power, and have the opportunity to go to Palestine. It is not a matter of millions. There may be several thousand from the United States and several thousand from the Soviet Union, the two countries of the world with the greatest Jewish populations. Those refugees that go to Palestine, some will return. They will not choose to repatriate themselves from lands of torture. Some may go to Latin America, but they are homeless. They have always understood and looked upon Palestine not as their Biblical home but traditionally as their home. They want to go to a home but they do not want to go to the lands of torture under the domination of Hitler.

I think I will say one last word and I am done. We had an American-Jewish Conference in August and September 1943, and I think it is fair to say they represent 3,000,000 of the 5,000,000 Jews. I happened to be the chairman of the session for which Dr. Silver made a most brilliant presentation of the commonwealth. We took a vote. There were some who abstained from voting but the vote was 498 to 4 in favor of the adoption of the resolution which finds its counterpart in the resolution proposed by the Members of Congress. If there could be a referendum of 5,000,000 American Jews I venture to say, and I cannot work for 50 years as a rabbi without knowing something about the Jewish people, if an honest vote could be taken 90 to 95 percent of the Jews of America would support this resolution.

Chairman BLOOM. Would you mind an interruption, Rabbi?
Rabbi WISE. No.

Chairman BLOOM. On the center of the table there are thousands and thousands of telegrams and letters from all over, every State in the Union. There are only, I think, 10 letters and telegrams of disapproval of the resolution. The letters and telegrams represent organizations of many thousands.

Rabbi WISE. Tens of thousands.

Chairman BLOOM. But that will bear out your statement.

Rabbi WISE. Ninety to ninety-five percent if they could vote would say "yes, we favor the resolution." It is not merely the Jews. I know my country. I was a citizen of Oregon for a number of years and was in danger of being elected to Congress and I might have had your place much 'to the loss of our country if I had accepted political office. Congressmen come and Congressmen go, but I go on forever. I visited President Wilson and he said, "Wise, what can I do for you"?, and I replied "nothing." He said, "Wise, you are the first man that has come to me who does not want something.'

I think I have a right to say I know my country and its people, and if a plebiscite could be taken of the American people I think the Ameri

can feeling in the depth of the Christian faith in the light of its understanding of the plight of my tragic people would vote on a parity with the Jews. If the Jews wanted to have a democratic commonwealth in the land which was their homeland, I venture to say that some of my fellow Jews may follow them, but I repeat I know America and I know American integrity and I respect it and I know my people, and I assure you, Mr. Chairman, it is worth the while of my Christian fellow Americans to take into account the unutterable suffering of my people, almost their destruction, and tell you every day my people will watch with breathless attention what your country and what the Congress will do. It begs your help, but we are not beggars. We are selfrevering people. We need a free and democratic Jewish commonwealth.

And as my last word I want my people to have the chance side by side with the Arabs to translate the teachings of the Bible into practice and into the manners and morale and spiritual achievement day by day of the Jewish commonwealth, free and democratic which with your help may yet come to pass.

Chairman BLOOM. Rabbi Wise, thank you very much, and in 1922 you appeared before this committee. You appeared here at that time.

Rabbi WISE. Yes.

Chairman BLOOм. And at that time there was inserted in the record a letter from Woodrow Wilson, then President of the United States. Would you desire that letter read?

Rabbi WISE. If the Chairman wishes it.

(The letter referred to was thereupon read by the clerk of the committee and is as follows:)

Dr. STEPHEN S. WISE,

THE WHITE HOUSE,

Washington, D. C., August 31, 1918.

Chairman, Provisional Executive Committee for General Zionist Affairs,

New York.

MY DEAR RABBI WISE: I have watched with deep and sincere interest the reconstructive work which the Weizmann Commission has done in Palestine at the instance of the British Government, and I welcome an opportunity to express the satisfaction I have felt in the progress of the Zionist movement in the United States and in the Allied countries since the declaration of Mr. Balfour, on behalf of the British Government, of Great Britain's approval of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and his promise that the British Government would use its best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of that object, with the understanding that nothing would be done to prejudice the civil and religious rights of non-Jewish people in Palestine or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in other countries.

I think that all Americans will be deeply moved by the report that even in this time of stress the Weizmann Commission has been able to lay the foundation of the Hebrew University at Jerusalem with the promise that that bears of spiritual rebirth.

Cordially and sincerely yours,

WOODROW WILSON.

Chairman BLOOM. I thought you would like to be reminded of this and of the days gone by.

Rabbi WISE. I am glad to remember it, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman BLOOм. I remember a lot of others.

The Chair wishes to state that the opposition has used an hour and three-quarters and the proponents of these resolutions have used an hour and a half. We have several witnesses yet for and against and we would like to hear them all, but it is half past one now and

the committee cannot sit all day as we did before. We have one witness who wishes to place a statement in the record.

STATEMENT OF JOHN SLAWSON, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE, NEW YORK CITY

Mr. SLAWSON. I do not wish to make any verbal statement, Mr. Chairman; merely to file this memorandum for your record. Chairman BLOOM. Without objection that will be done. (The memorandum referred to is as follows:)

MEMORANDUM ON THE WRight-CompTON RESOLUTION BY THE AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE, NEW YORK, N. Y.

(Submitted to House Committee on Foreign Affairs, February 15, 1944) The American Jewish Committee respectfully submits to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs the following memorandum on the Wright-Compton resolution: 1. Concerned with the welfare of Jews everywhere, the American Jewish Committee which was established in 1906 has been deeply and actively interested in the development of the Jewish settlement in Palestine. Entirely apart from the political status of Palestine, we have given consistent and uninterrupted encouragement and support to all measures that have been taken to build there a large and prosperous Jewish community, which would dwell in the Holy Land "as of right and not on sufferance."

2. With respect to so much of the resolution as deals with the subject of Jewish immigration into Palestine and with opportunity for colonization therein, the American Jewish Committee records itself as in full accord with the purposes of the resolution and strongly urges the adoption of this portion of the resolution.

In respect to the opening of the doors of Palestine, the American Jewish Committee pledged its "most diligent efforts to bring about the abrogation of the White Paper." In conformity with that pledge, the committee prepared a memorandum on the White Paper in which it urged "that the British Government reexamine the 1939 White Paper, considering such reexamination to be of the utmost urgency in the light of the present needs of European Jewry." In this memorandum, the committee pleaded for the abrogation of the White Paper which among other things "discriminates against Jews as such" and for the liberal immigration policy embodied in the Balfour Declaration and the Palestine mandate. This memorandum was submitted on January 17, 1944, by representatives of the American Jewish Committee to Viscount Halifax, Ambassador of Great Britain to the United States. A copy of this memorandum is submitted for the information of the committee.

3. With respect to so much of the resolution that declares the purpose ultimately to reconstitute Palestine as "a free and democratic Jewish commonwealth," the American Jewish Committee, for the reasons stated below, earnestly urges that the final determination of this controversial question be deferred and that the resolution be amended accordingly.

A. The American Jewish Committee, as a preliminary to the discussion of this question, is glad to record its belief that all sections of American Jewry are in accord with the position heretofore taken by this committee and stated as follows: "Since we hold that in the United States, as in all other countries, Jews, like all other citizens, are nationals of those nations and of no other, there can be no political identification of Jews outside of Palestine with whatever government may there be instituted."

B. The committee at its thirty-sixth annual meeting, held on January 31, 1943, adopted a specific position with respect to the future government of Palestine, on which we believe all persons interested in the welfare of the Jews in Palestine can unite.

The factors upon which the position of the American Jewish Committee is based are as follows:

(a) We recognize that there are more than a half million Jews in Palestine who have built up a sound and flourishing economic life and a satisfying spiritual and cultural life and that they comprise approximately one-third of the populat i