The Press SATURDAY, MAY 21, 1910. ZIONISM AND THE JEWISH – PROBLEM.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 13739, 21 May 1910, Page 8

The Press SATURDAY, MAY 21, 1910. ZIONISM AND THE JEWISH - PROBLEM.

At lat-t we haye an authoritative and oonstcntiv-e account of the Zionist movement from its inception to the present day, from the pen cf one of its moving spirits. The story is told hy Mr Israel Zangwiil in the pages of the

•'Fortnjghtly Review." It is a story of visionary and idealistic §ehe?ne£, frustrated partly by diplomatic anel practical difficulties, partly by internal dissensions amopg the body of the Jews themselves. The inspiring genius of the movement, in its early stages, was Dr. Hertzl. of Vienna, a man of commanding figure and fascinating perMSnality, who was on the literary staff of the "None Freie Presse." He, in 1897, promulgated a scheme for founding iv Palestine a Jewish State, to which all the persecuted Jows of Europe might fly, <ipd become free citizens. A "Jewish Colonisation Association" was already in existence, with a capital of ten millions, jjnd a Jewish Colonial Bjink was now oponcd in London. Hertzl interviewed the German Emperor and obtained prppijses of support, which were never fulfilled. He interviewed the late Sultan of Turkey, who kept hini dangling op, and tried work in a "deal"' for the conversion of certain Turkish honds. Tlio Sultan wji_ willing that detached Jewish colonies should be settled in Palestine, btit on np account would ho hear of the insertion of any largo political aggregate. Tin*, decision gave the dpath-hlq\y to the Palestine project, but not I-efore 55angwill and tho niare clear-sighted leaders had become convinced of its futility on other grounds. The narrow and sterile belt pf Palestine could not acconit}iodato one-tenth of the Jews whom it was proposed to transfer. Moreover, it tho Turks were hostile, the Arabs were still more so and F.ijpstine alrppady carried a ''population flf six hundred thousand Arabs, who would bitterly resent the intrusion of a,n autonomous or privileged Jewish State.

Casting liis eyes round/ for othpr suitable territories, Hertzl fised on two,, tho islapd of Cyprus, and the coastal region, north of Sinai. The formej- was impracticable owing to the pro.lifeljenip ardour ot its inhabitants. An expedition of inspection was sent to Sinai, and Hertzl went to Egypt tp prflcurp th. of the Government and Lord Cromer. TJtp Sinaitic country tvas parehgd a]]d arid, and the Egyptian Government positively to allow any division o,f the watorg of the Nile for purposes of irrigation. lipFS* Cromer remained passive, and so .his pleasing dream also vanished. Jiut. tho indefatigable idealist was not daunted. His nest idea was a piece of British territory, njipiejy, g, hlock of the vast, nnpeopled regions. ef British East Africa. He approached Mr Chamberlain, then in the plgntitude of his power and influence during the Boer war. Mr Chamberlain entered, heartily into the scheme, and found supporters in personages so widely different as Mr Lloyd Gepi-go and the late Earl Percy. Here, at IjEist, wjjes hope, and liert?;! rejoiced in tho prospect of a settlement, under British protection. But the npjet Jewish Corigrpss had first to be faced. He counted on opposition fipm the narrow and fanatical Zionisms; what he niet was a raging tempest. All day long he reasoned and appealed, and fft length, by superhuman effortf, carried through a resolution in favour of the acceptance of any territory tljat seemed .suitable. He went home from the meeting, sickened, and died, a brokpn and disappointed man, at the age of forty-four. The exploring expedition to East Africa fell under the influence of the extreme party, and brought up an adverse report. Once again the world was scanned, and choice fell on tha r e g"° n of Cyrenaica, in North Africa, which had had a stirring history so far back as Greek and Roman times. An expedition was sent out to explore, accompanied by Professor Gregory as geologist. The country was all that could be desiredj except for one fatal defect; the soil was ;.f so spongy a character that the water sank to immeasurable depths, and irrigation was out of the question.

Since then tho larger scheme -A founding a Jpwjsh State "pn an autonomous basis" has been in abeyance, hut a steady streani of Jewish emigration has been poising out of Europe, under the original plan inaugurated by Baron de Hirsch. A good part of it finds its way into the States v.-c-st of thc Mississippi, through the port of Galveston. But not •*■ fcot of territory lor an autonomous State will be given by America. Meantime 'Mr Zangwiil and Dr. Max Nordau asjrce in pronouncing Zionism bankrupt. But the former p'eads for one piorp trial in Mesopotamia. In fact, Mesopotamia has been a -blessed word" to Mr Zangwiil ail through. He falls back on the vast schemes of irrigation projected by Sir William Willcocks, of harvests and railr ■- ■<-. \,________n_m__m__^____m

ways exports ar.d imi-orts. and a flourishing trade with Europe on the ..ne side, and Jndia on the other. On the whole question we are inclined to agrea with those sypipathotic non : Jewi6h writers, who think that the - reconstitution cf the Jews as a nation is an historical and ethnological impossibility. W|tb that people at least nation-build-ing is a lost art. The making of a nation requjre_j rujers, financiers, agriculturists, manufacturers, architects, shipbuilders, and many other khids of fspecialjgts. Are the typical children of the Ghetto in Central and Eastern Europe torday able to furnish all these things? Is the Jewis!} problem, then, insoluble"' Sometimes it wquld appear so. Tho choice seems to lie between emigration apd extermination. We British communities have: Jittlo conception of the intensity of the antj-Semitic feeling in Eastern Europe. A third way qf e§cijpe is possible: that the Jew should abandon his separate and isolated manner of existence, adapt hunself to the ways of the community in which he lives, and oven intermarry with them* Or this there seems little probability. It is a S>ad and tragic spectacle