Precursor to the Balfour Declaration?
The Secret Memoir of 1915.
A secret memoir exists by Herbert Samuel to the British Cabinet in 1915 deals with the future of the Holy Land (then controlled by Turkey) and Jewish settlement with it. This is interesting in its own right and also due to what came after it. The full text is now available Online but on behalf of our readers we have summarized below key points:
Background:
In 1914-1918 Great Britain along with its Dominions, Empire, and allies fought the First World War against Germany and Austria and the Turkish Empire. Turkey had been a problem for other nations for long beforehand. The dissolution of Turkey was foreseen and what to do with territories liberated from it was already being considered.
Wikipedia tells us:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Samuel,_1st_Viscount_Samuel
Herbert Louis Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel (6 November 1870 - 5 February 1963) was a British Liberal politician who was the party leader from 1931 to 1935.
He was the first nominally-practising Jew to serve as a Cabinet minister and to become the leader of a major British political party.
Samuel had promoted Zionism within the British Cabinet, beginning with his 1915 memorandum entitled The Future of Palestine.
In 1920 he was appointed as the first High Commissioner for Palestine, in charge of the administration of the territory.
The British occupation of Palestine was based on the Balfour Declaration of 1917, a public statement issued by the British Government in 1917 during the First World War announcing its support for the establishment of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine, then an Ottoman region with a small minority Jewish population. The Declaration was contained in a letter dated 2 November 1917 from the United Kingdom's Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Lord Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish community, for transmission to the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland. The text of the declaration was published in the press on 9 November 1917.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balfour_Declaration
Samuel was a member of the British Government Cabinet that affirmed the Declaration.
An Outline of the 1915 Secret Memoir.
1915 Secret Memoir 1915 for the Cabinet from Herbert Samuel advocating British Occupation of Palestine.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/Future_of_Palestine_Herbert_Samuel_memorandum_1915_CAB_37_123_43.jpg
Palestine then had ca. 15,000 souls. 2/3 of Jerusalem was Jewish, rest of the country 1/6.
[ These figures are somewhat misleading. The Jewish population was suffering from a plague, and famine, and the forcible expulsion of all those holding Russian passports, many of whom temporarily moved to Egypt and were awaiting there].
There were 400,000 to 500,000 "Mahomaddans of Arab race."
Samuel warns of a British Occupation of Palestine taking steps "one century too soon" to turn the land over to the Jews.
Nevertheless, for the sake of survival it would be necessary for Jews to become the ultimate majority.
Special rights were to be ensured for Christians (especially Catholics and Greek-Russian Orthodox) and for Muslims.
Pertinence to Britain:
1. Show the world the civilizing capability of the British.
"the country will be redeemed."
"The British Agent in Egypt recently reported (7th January) that the information of the Intelligence Department there indicated that a large proportion of the population would welcome a British occupation.
2. Prestige Value.
#... Palestine, small as it is in area, but so large in the world's imagination, that no Empire is so great but its prestige would be raised by its possession. The inclusion of Palestine within the British Empire would add a lustre even to the British Crown.
It would make a most powerful appeal to the people of the United Kingdom and the Dominions, particularly if it were avowedly a means of helping the Jews to reoccupy the country. Widespread and deep-root within the Protestant world is a sympathy
with restoring the Hebrew people to the land which was to be their inheritance, an intense interest interest to fulfill the prophecies which have foretold it. #
Also, Redemption of the Christian holy places from "the vulgarization to which they are now subject."
3. Compensation for Great War losses.
Germany was to be defeated, British public would want territorial compensation from German colonies in East and West Africa. This might cause resentment in Germany 20 or 30 years later. Better to allay part of the British public appetite for more land by taking Palestine from Turkey, ally of Germany.
4. Protection of Egypt (and the Suez Canal) would be enhanced by occupying Palestine.
5. Gratitude of Jews, especially those of the USA.
Alternatives:
a. Annexation by France, less popular than Britain among local inhabitants.
b. Internationalization might lead to a take-over later by Germany.
c. Annexation to Egypt would be popular with the Arabs but complicated. It would prevent creation of a Jewish State.
d. Leave the country to Turkey. Bad record in the past, difficult to supervise.
Foresees Jewish polity of 3 to 4 million which would not solve the Jewish Problem but might alleviate it.
Concludes with the following paragraph:
# The Jewish brain is a physiological product not to be despised. For fifteen centuries the race produced in Palestine a constant succession of great men - statesmen and prophets, judges and soldiers. If a body again be given to which its soul can lodge, it may again enrich the world.
Till full scope is granted, as Macaulay said in the House of Commons, "let us not presume to say there is no genius among the countrymen of Isaiah, no heroism among the descendants of the Maccabees."
cf.
Thomas Babington Macaulay's Speech to the House of Commons on Jewish Emancipation, April 17th, 1833
https://alecstapp.com/2013/06/27/thomas-babington-macaulays-speech-to-the-house-of-commons-on-jewish-emancipation-april-17th-1833/
DEAR LORD ROTHSCHILD,
I HAVE MUCH PLEASURE IN CONVEYING TO YOU, ON BEHALF OF HIS MAJESTY'S GOVERNMENT, THE FOLLOWING DECLARATION OF SYMPATHY WITH JEWISH ZIONIST ASPIRATIONS WHICH HAS BEEN SUBMITTED TO, AND APPROVED BY, THE CABINET.
"HIS MAJESTY'S GOVERNMENT VIEW WITH FAVOUR THE ESTABLISHMENT IN PALESTINE OF A NATIONAL HOME FOR THE JEWISH PEOPLE, AND WILL USE THEIR BEST ENDEAVOURS TO FACILITATE THE ACHIEVEMENT OF THIS OBJECT, IT BEING CLEARLY UNDERSTOOD THAT NOTHING SHALL BE DONE WHICH MAY PREJUDICE THE CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS RIGHTS OF EXISTING NON-JEWISH COMMUNITIES IN PALESTINE, OR THE RIGHTS AND POLITICAL STATUS ENJOYED BY JEWS IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY."
I SHOULD BE GRATEFUL IF YOU WOULD BRING THIS DECLARATION TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE ZIONIST FEDERATION.
YOURS SINCERELY,
ARTHUR JAMES BALFOUR
After publication of the Balfour Declaration there was some discussion as to what exactly it intended. The Zionists them selves were dvidied. Samuel for instance considered the aims of Zionist leader, Chaim Wizmannn, to be too modest.
The memo of Samuel speaks of the Jews becomin a majority in the Land and taking control of it. This aim was known to all members of the Cabinet and tacitly approved by them. British public opinion appears to have been even more pro-Zionist.