Great Britain. Foreign Office. Historical Section

“ If you persist in refusing me what France has always had, namely, the first place at Constantinople, I shall range myself on the side of your enemies. Trust only to your true friend, who is France, or you and your religion and your family will perish. ”

“ Whether it is desirable or not to confide any portion of the administration of Palestine to a Chartered Company need not he discussed; but it is certainly very undesirable that Jews should solicit or accept such a concession on a basis of political privilege and economic preferences. Any such action would prove a veritable calamity for the whole Jewish people. In all the countries in which they live the principle of equal rights for all religious denominations is vital for them. ”

“ The kingdoms and principalities founded during the Crusades in Palestine and Syria, Asia Minor and Cyprus, were French. The Latin Emperors at Constantinople were French, and French princelets retained some fragments of territory in Greece. The French tongue was never forgotten; and for centuries to come the Christians of Europe were "Franks" to dwellers in the Levant. In any future rivalry for power or privilege in the Eastern Mediterranean, France, with her memories of Gesta Dei per Francos, would start with more substantial assets and richer traditions than any of her competitors. ”

“ In the event of Palestine coming within the spheres of influence of Great Britain or France at the close of the war, the Governments of those Powers will not fail to take account of the historic interest that country possesses for the Jewish community. The Jewish population will be secured in the enjoyment of civil and religious liberty, equal political rights with the rest of the population, reasonable facilities for immigration and colonization, and such municipal privileges in the towns and colonies inhabited by them as may be shown to be necessary. ”

“ The irreconcilables formed themselves into a 'League of British Jews' so as to protect each other against the insinuation that they are aliens in the land of their birth, and that, as Jews, they cannot be Englishmen! The League is believed to have achieved no great success; and the Zionists, while denying that there is any ground for their fears, retort that those who wish to stay in the wilderness may stay there. ”

“ The scheme is presented as the most important undertaking on which France could enter, since its success would carry with it the military leadership of Christendom. It is also the least dangerous and difficult of large schemes, and its failure would do her no irreparable damage. Egypt is the Holland of the East, and its conquest would overthrow the Dutch enemy, whose strength lies in her colonies and in the East Indian trade. The master of Egypt could render infinite service or disservice to the world, by stopping trade as the Turks have done or developing it by means of a canal. ”

“ It cannot he supposed for a moment that any section of Jews would aim at a commonwealth governed by religious tests and limited in the matter of freedom of conscience; but can a religious nationality express itself politically in any other way? ”

“ A spirited foreign policy in the Levant was urged on Louis XIV in the same year 1672 by the French Ambassador at Constantinople, d'Arvieux, who was well acquainted with the Turkish Empire. The Turks, he complained, had permitted foreigners to enter and to trade with Turkey under the protection of other flags than that of France, had pillaged French subjects by land and sea, had imposed extra taxes on French goods, and had treated the King of France with disrespect by sending to him Ambassadors of lower grade than the French Ambassadors accredited to the Porte. ”

“ Since Turkey had fallen under the influence of Russia at the treaty of Adrianople (1829) , the most promising policy for France was to support the most formidable of the Sultan's rivals. Mehemet Ali, the Albanian adventurer who had won the Viceroyalty of Egypt, was not content with Crete, which had been assigned to him in reward for his services during the Greek War of Independence; and in 1831 he despatched his son Ibrahim at the head of a formidable army, which over-ran Syria, crossed the Taurus, and advanced into the heart of Asia Minor. ”

“ It follows that the establishment of a Jewish nationality in Palestine founded on this theory of Jewish homelessness must have the effect throughout the world of stamping the Jews as strangers in their native lands, and of undermining their hard-won position as citizens and nationals of those lands. Moreover a Jewish political nationality carried to its logical conclusion must in the present circumstances of the world he an anachronism. The Jewish religion being the only certain test of the Jew, a Jewish nationality must he founded on, and limited by, the religion. ”

“ The Army of the East shall take possession of Egypt. The Commander-in-Chief shall chase the English from all their possessions in the East which he can reach, and in particular he shall destroy all their comptoirs in the Red Sea. He shall have the isthmus of Suez cut through, and he shall take all necessary steps to assure the free and exclusive possession of the Red Sea to the French Republic. He shall ameliorate the lot of the natives of Egypt and shall maintain a good understanding with the Sultan and his subjects. ”

“ The latter, or the 'pig and plough' Zionists, are agricultural, scientific, non-religious, perhaps anti-religious. Their chief adherents are the students and radicals, the intellectuals of the United States as well as Russia. The most forceful and energetic Zionist leaders belong to them. The long duration of the war and the vast upheavals of the Jewish populations of Eastern Europe have made it difficult to estimate the relative strength of the two parties. ”

“ The Chamber refused to vote funds even for the limited project, and the decision sounded the knell of French power in Egypt; for Great Britain, after suppressing the revolt, naturally became the real ruler of the country. For another twenty years France hesitated to recognize the position which her abstention had created; but the Agreement of 1904, by which France withdrew her opposition to the British occupation of Egypt in return for British recognition of French claims in Morocco, brought a period of painful tension to a close. ”

“ Abbott, G. F. Turkey, Greece and the Great Powers. London, 1916. Cressaty, Count R. J. M. Les Intérêts français en Syrie. Paris, 1915.
Driault, E. La Question d'Orient. Paris, 1917.
Farman, T. F. French Claim on Syria (Contemporary Review, September, 1915.) ”

“ The Committee was in close touch with similar Jewish committees abroad, especially the American Jewish Committee, and its labours were attended with considerable success, so that, before the war, they had almost persuaded the Governments of Russia and Rumania to relax their Anti-Semitic legislation and administration. When the war broke out everything was altered. The persecuting Governments became our friends, and Palestine was a most important factor in the war policy of the Allies. To Zionists and non-Zionists alike the future of the country had become a matter of vital interest. ”

“ Landing of French troops. 1861–4 Lebanon receives autonomy. 1869 Opening of the Suez Canal. 1882 France declines to aid Great Britain in the suppression of Arabi's rebellion. 1905 The French Republic breaks with the Church. 1918 Conquest of Palestine and Syria by Allenby. ”

“ Let Mehemet Ali have his Egypt and the hereditary investiture which he demands, but do not let the two Powers adjoin. If we thought that Mehemet Ali could make himself strong and respected on the Ottoman throne, we should say Amen; but nothing will induce the Turks to regard him as a descendant of the Prophet."
If Syria were thus lopped off, he added, Russia would try to seize the European provinces of Turkey, which she had long coveted, and the Powers would have no title to protest. In a word Russia and France would dominate the Turkish Empire. ”

“ Organization
The Zionists form an organized democratic electoral system. All Jews become members on payment of
a nominal fee called 'shekel' (in the equivalent of currency, one shilling, franc, or mark) . Each member who has paid a shekel for two successive years has one vote, and every group of 200 Shekel-payers has the right to elect a delegate to the Zionist Congress.
A delegate must be not less than 24 years of age; a deputy is generally chosen to take his place in case of unavoidable absence from the Congress.
The Congress is the legislative body of the Zionist Organization. ”

“ The Conjoint committee, indeed, would have no objections to urge against a local Jewish nationality establishing itself in such conditions. But the present claim is not of this limited scope. It is part and parcel of a wider Zionist theory which regards all the Jewish communities of the world as constituting one homeless nationality, incapable of complete social and political identification with the nations among whom they dwell; and it is argued that for this homeless nationality a political centre and an always available homeland in Palestine are necessary. ”

“ France averted her glance from the East, being fully occupied with the Hundred Years' War and with the consolidation of her Monarchy. Her place in the foreground of the stage was taken by the City Republics of Italy, whose steps were drawn to the Levant not by religion but by lure of gain, and who witnessed the rapid growth of the Ottoman dominion without a qualm. Bertrandon de la Brocquière, a French traveller in Syria and Asia Minor in 1432, found that the Turks were well disposed towards the French ”

“ The French Ambassador in London was summoned to the Foreign Office and informed that the Cabinet took a grave view of the crisis.
"I start with the belief," began Palmerston, "that our common object is to maintain the Ottoman Empire as a guarantee for the preservation of the European equilibrium. ”

“ Against this theory the Conjoint Committee strongly and earnestly protest. Emancipated Jews in this country regard themselves primarily as a religious community, and they have always based their claims to political equality with their fellow-citizens of other creeds on this assumption, and on its corollary—that they have no separate national aspirations in a political sense. They hold Judaism to be a religious system with which their political status has no concern ”

“ During the autumn and winter of 1798 Bonaparte busied himself with the suppression of revolts and the administration of the country, in which he received aid from the distinguished scholars and men of science whom he had brought with him and who formed the Institute of Egypt. But his hope that the Porte would not regard the seizure of Egypt as a casus belli was disappointed, for by September Turkey was at war with France. ”

“ Zionism and the Jewish Community
During the war, there have been cross-currents in Jewry which have resulted in a distinct triumph for the Zionists. The Palestine question is one of the great problems for the Peace Congress. The Governments of the Allied Powers, especially Great Britain, the United States, France, and Italy, are believed to see its solution in some government by or for the Jews. Most Zionists hope for this under the aegis of Great Britain. The great Jewish communal bodies, especially in England, have kept aloof from the Zionists. ”

“ In 1898 M. Delcassé, Minister of Foreign Affairs, obtained through the Cardinal-Archbishop of Reims a satisfactory declaration from the Pope in reply to the Cardinal's proposal to form a Committee of Defence of the French Protectorate of the Christians in the Levant.
"France has in the East a special mission which Providence has confided to her," wrote Leo XIII in an autograph letter. "It is a noble mission which has been consecrated not only by centuries of practice but by international treaties. ”

“ The aim of the movement has been to move the head-quarters to Palestine as soon as conditions permit, because no other country can be more than an accidental and temporary head-quarters. The most convenient centre for the majority of Zionists would be in Russia, for, though the fame of the Organization is West European, its lifeblood and strongest membership consists of Russian Jews. ”

“ The Turks lost faith in the sincerity of France; and in 1557 the French Ambassador reported that he could not convince the Sultan or his Ministers that the alliance was or ever had been advantageous to Turkey. Henceforth, though France and Turkey remained enemies of the Habsburgs, they no longer cooperated in the attack, and France took no part in the battle of Lepanto (1571) . The destruction of the Turkish navy rendered a Turkish alliance less attractive ”