Conjoint Committee submitted to H.M. Government the following formula in regard to Jewish interests in Palestine:
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.
Meantime the Zionists had entered into direct relations with the Foreign Office, and attempts were not wanting to bring the Conjoint Committee into line with them. But its formula fell short of the Basle programme, and no agreement could be arrived at. The Conjoint Committee instructed their two presidents to make the following public statement of their views as to Jewish resettlement and their objections to the Nationalist policy of the Zionists:
In view of the statements and discussions later published in the newspapers relative to a projected Jewish resettlement in Palestine on a national basis, the Conjoint Foreign Committee of the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Anglo-Jewish Association deem it necessary to place on record the views they hold on this important question.
The Holy Land has necessarily a profound and undying interest for all Jews as the cradle of their religion, the main theatre of Bible History, and the site of its sacred memorials. It is not, however, as a mere shrine or place of pilgrimage that they regard the country. Since the dawn of their political emancipation in Europe, the Jews have made the rehabilitation of the Jewish community in the Holy Land one of their chief cares; and they have always cherished the hope that the result of their labours would be the regeneration on Palestinian soil of a Jewish community worthy of the great memories of their environment, and a source of spiritual inspiration to the whole of Jewry. Accordingly, the Conjoint Committee have welcomed with deep satisfaction the prospect of a rich fruition of this work, opened to them by the victorious progress of the British Army in Palestine.
