Herzl interviews Chamberlain and Rothschild Herzl approached the British through Lord Rothschild and the British Prime Minister Chamberlain, to-wit: on October 23, 1902. He said in his diary of that date: I laid the entire Jewish question before the immobile mask which is Joe Chamberlain. My relations to Turkey, I am in negotiation with the Sultan, I said in English. But you know what Turkish negotiations are. If you want to buy a carpet, first you must drink a half dozen cups of coffee and smoke a hundred cigarettes. Then you discuss family stories, and from time to time you speak a few words again about the carpet. Now I have time to negotiate, but my people have not. They are starving in the Pale. I must bring them immediate help. And so on. The mask smiled at the carpet story. I then passed on to the subject of the territory which I wanted from England. Herzl also said: I set my hopes on Chamberlain, whom I shall see next week. He stands at a distance from the whole business, sees it from a higher point - AND DOES NOT KNOW THE VALUE OF THE BIG STRETCH OF LAND FOR WHICH I AM ASKING (Diaries, page 178). But the Rothschilds knew the value of the big stretch of land for which he was asking. When he and the Kaiser visited Palestine they found the Rothschild agents there (see supra). Lord Walter Rothschild to whom the Balfour Declaration was made, was not at first very friendly to his colonization scheme. Herzl (p. 176) says of his interview with him: In England, said Rothschild, there will never be any anti-Semitism, etc. In France, too, it was something else, etc. He does not believe in Zionism. We should never get Palestine, etc. He is an Englishman and wants to remain one. He desires me to say this and that to the Alien Commission, and not to say this and the other. At this point the business became too stupid for me. I had interrupted him a couple of times. But now I began to overshout him in such a way that he was dazed and kept his mouth shut. . . I shall tell the Commission what I think proper and the truth as I see it. That is my habit, and I shall cling to it now, too. It was false, I said, that the powers were against our going to Palestine. I have influenced Germany and Russia in our favor. England, I thought, would have nothing against it. I was PERSONA GRATIA with the Sultan. Yes, he threw in, The Sultan is naturally friendly to you because you are Dr. Herzl of the Neue Freie Presse. It would be stupid and arrogant of me, I said, to read the Commission a lecture on the characteristics of the real Englishman. I shall simply say what terrible misery there is in the East, and that these people must either get away or perish. The need in Rumania has been known to us since 1897; the Congress petition received no attention. In Galicia it is perhaps even worse. There are seven hundred thousand people there in misery. They also begin to move. My Lord said: I hope you are not going to say that to the Commission. Or else we shall have restrictions. At this point I became massive: Certainly I shall say it. You can count on that. Whereupon his jaw dropped, he rang, and called his brother Leopold. To him he repeated what had been said, and added that in my opinion Jewish charity had merely become a machine for the suppression of the cry of misery . . . At the same time I shall make a semi-official attempt to get in touch with Lord R. He is in a furious rage against me - perhaps this is the psychological moment for the conclusion of peace. When he was asked in the Commission why he was opposed to calling me, he said that I was demagogue, a windbag. But he sold Rothschild on his plan as being the practical to obtain what both of them wanted. He said (Diaries, page 177): We went into the dining room, where I met Lord Roseberrys son and later Alfred, the third Rothschild, a true spiritual child of his father. Later, in my Lords study, Alfred told me of his very high Austrian and Russian orders. Great, what? Kronenoden, first class. The same Alfred asked me what I wanted to do for the Jews. Colonization? Good. But why in Palestine? It sounded so Jewish. After the coffee I went over to the writing desk and asked him: Would you like to hear my scheme now? Yes. I shoved my chair closer to his better ear and said: I want to get a Charter for Colonization from the English Government. Dont say Charter. The word doesnt sound so good now. Call it what you like. I want to found a Jewish colony in British territory. Take Uganda. No, I can use only this.. . And as there were several others in the room I wrote on a piece of paper: Sinai Peninsula, Egyptian Palestine. Cyprus. And I added: Are you for it? He reflected, grinning, and answered: Very much. That was victory; I then added on the piece of paper: STOP THE SULTAN FROM GETTING MONEY. He answered: I prevented Rumania from getting money. But here I can do nothing, as the great powers want it. They want to have the railway built. I said: The Sultan offered me Mesopotamia. He, astounded: And you refused? Yes.
Posted on: Sat, 23 Aug 2014 01:34:41 +0000
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