Our assimilationists in every country, here as well as in Germany, in England as well as in France and Austria, have been telling their respective governments that those Jews who aspire to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine are disloyal citizens and are conspiring against their own country. In England and in America, where the governments follow a broad-minded and liberal policy, no attention is paid to such hypocritical talk. But in Austria, Germany and Turkey, conditions are different. There the influential assimilationists are still _personae gratae_ with their governments, and since they are capable of every crime, if they can only see their way clear to break Jewish nationalism, they will no doubt lose no time in pointing out to their governments that Jewish nationalists, though they displayed heroism on the battle-field, are not loyal to their countries and are crossing the plans of the Central Powers in the Near East. They will tell the governments that the Jewish nationalists are conspiring with the enemies of their governments against the interests of the Central Powers in the Orient; the result may be that the government of the Central Powers, listening to this misleading talk, may embark on a Jewish policy opposing that of the Entente and may start to persecute Zionists and all who sympathize with Jewish nationalism, thus making the life of eastern European Jewry, now greatly under the control of the Teutonic Powers, still more bitter. Therein lies the danger of our misconstruing the high-minded declaration of the British Cabinet. The statesmen of the Entente Powers certainly do not wish to imperil the existence of European Jewry, nor do they wish to have their policy misconstrued by the Central Powers. These statesmen want the liberation of small nationalities and not their oppression. These statesmen also know that if the Jews in the new Palestine will not be, first of all, pro-Jewish, there will not be the Jewish Palestine which they wish to see established. By misconstruing the declaration of the British Government, we are implicitly acting against the spirit and noble motives of this declaration and, needless to say, we are acting against our own elemental interests. A Jewish Palestine is only possible with the consent of all the powers, and since it is desirable that it should be a product of the consensus of opinion among all the powers, every act on our part must be avoided that may create the impression that in the anxiety to build up a national homeland in Palestine the Jewish people are becoming political tools of any power or group of powers. This will, in the end, spell ruin for us and might, besides, endanger the life of millions of our people in central and in eastern Europe. We have been told on good Zionist authority in this country, that the American Government, appreciating the present complicated international situation, is anxious to remain in the background with regard to the establishment of