FUTURE OF ZIONISM.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 230, 22 June 1908, Page 5

FUTURE OF ZIONISM.

FATE OF THE CHOSEN PEOPLE. In the Chancery Division on May 4 Mr. Justico Eve delivered a reserved judgment refusing to : sanction the proposal by tho Jewish Colonial Trust (Juedische Colonialbank), Ltd., 1 to restrict the scopo of its operations to Palestine, which the company said was the root doctrine of Zionism.

The Company was formed with a capital of £2.000,000 in pursuance of a resolution' passed by the Zion Congress held-at Baslo in! 1888,-' and was intended to be the financial instrument to carry out and realise tho.great ideal of the' Jewish race—the return of the chosen peoplo to the' Promised Land. It has 130,000 shareholders, mostly resident in Russiaj tho remainder being dispersed over, the world. Its memorandum gavo it power to promote the welfare of' the Jewish race in all parts ,of tho world, 'but: it now sought to restrict tho scope of 'its operations to the repatriation of the' Jewish peoplo in Palestine; Syria, and other parts of Turkey in Asia, Sina.i, and the islaud of Cyprus. Mr. Israel Zangwill, author of "The Children of the Ghetto," and a minority of tho shareholders who hare voted on * tho schemo opposed the proposed limitation, on the ground that the : "great ideal" was, in view of the • opposition' of tho Turkish Government, unattainable at present.

Mr: Justico_ Ero said ho was not called upon to consider tlio wisdom of the proposed alteration. All ho had to do ivas to sno whether it wan fair and equitable , as t between the two classes of shareholders. ■ Tho company had a majority/of five to one of thoso who had voted on tho schome, but shareholders holding thrcc-fonrths of the capital ha.d not expressed an opinion one | way or the other. If ho were to sanction j this alteration he should be doin£ very little for thoso who defended it, ana would inflict an unfair, restraint or possiblo injustice on those who opposed it, and put it out of their power to deal with any political or other exigency affccting tho prosperity and perhaps the very existence of a great people. ' The Company's petition was dismissed, with, costs.