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No. 46. | Vienna, 18 November 1898. | Second Year.

The Zionist Deputation in Palestine.

In our movement there is an event to be recorded whose significance does not first require explaining. It is the reception of the Zionist deputation at Jerusalem by the German Emperor.

At the beginning of October the reception was appointed. Thereupon, in the middle of October, the deputation, consisting of five gentlemen, set out upon the way to Palestine. They were: Dr. Th. Herzl, President, Dr. M. T. Schnirer, Vice-President of the Actions Committee, D. Wolffsohn, President of the Bank Committee, the advocate Dr. Bodenheimer, President of the Zionist Federation for Germany, and the engineer J. Seidener, technical adviser of the Actions Committee.

On the second of November the reception took place in the imperial tent at Jerusalem, in the presence of the Secretary of State von Bülow. His Majesty the Emperor answered Dr. Herzl's address in the most friendly manner.

This, in brief, is what has thus far been made known of the facts. We believe now that it will be of some interest to our readers to learn the impressions and views of the five returned members of this deputation. We have questioned them in turn and received answers, which we reproduce in what follows. Dr. Bodenheimer will write for the "Welt" a detailed account of the whole journey. The Editors.

Dr. Theodor Herzl:

We did not go to Palestine as pleasure-tourists, nor yet as travellers of research, but we had a definite political purpose. After this had been attained, we set out upon the return journey without delay. Nevertheless, even as guests and for a short while, we were able to make some observations and to render ourselves an account of conditions. In much of it things look sad; but over the desolate, neglected places there laughs a splendid sky, and wherever the hand of man has been suffered to stir, an inexhaustible nature has cheerfully helped it to conjure forth the swiftest abundance. The results of our colonists, and in particular of those who stand upon their own feet, are simply astounding. One still sees the stony, barren tract round about, into which such a stout fellow climbed a few years ago — he has coaxed an orange grove or a rich vineyard out of the earth.

Among the figures of such primitive acquirers of land, who conquer the soil as at the beginning of time, the colonist Brozie at Meżoh near Jerusalem particularly struck me. He was a simple day-labourer in the colony of Rechoboth. One day he scraped together his few pence, saved and starved for, and went out upon this stony hillside. As he gave proofs of his industry, he was assisted with loans by a Cologne colonial society. Two years ago he had his first vintage. The yield was five hundred francs. In the following year his harvest already brought him three times as much, and he looks forward to a further rapid progression of the yield, because his vines grow ever better. All round his well-tended garden there is still the waste, which industry might likewise turn into a garden.

And of such examples there are as many as there are colonists in Palestine. Capable, sober men with hard fists, and in their eyes they have an enthusiasm for the land.

The Jewish husbandmen are tough and intelligent; that was the impression we had everywhere we came together with them. Naturally the picturesque details struck us most in our hurried passing by. But even from such particulars something may be inferred. The colonists are, for example, good horsemen. When we came to Rechoboth, a troop of young people came galloping to meet us, some twenty of them, who wished to accompany us as an escort to the settlement. Round about our carriages they performed upon their swift horses a kind of Arab fantasia, and we could not but think of the lasso-riders of the Wild West of America as we saw these sturdy, weather-browned lads wheel their horses about, storm far out into the field, and return with shouts of joy.

Unfortunately we were able to visit only a small number of the colonies, but the Jewish peasant we have nevertheless come to know. He promises much for the future.