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Basle, 29 August 1903 — 6 Elul 5663.

A Declaration of the English Government.*)

Sir Clement Hill, Chief of Protectorate Dept. to Mr. L. J. Greenberg.

Foreign Office.

Aug. 14th 1903.

Sir,

Mr. Chamberlain communicated to the Marquess of Lansdowne the letter which you addressed to him on the 13th ultimo containing the form of an agreement which Dr. Herzl proposes should be entered into between His Majesty’s Government and the Jewish Colonial Trust Ltd. for the establishment of a Jewish settlement in East Africa.

His Lordship has also had under his consideration the remarks made by you on 6th Just. on the occasion of your interview in this office with Sir E. Barrington and Mr. Hurst.

I am now directed by His Lordship to say that he has studied the question with the interest which His Majesty’s Government must always take in any well-considered scheme for the amelioration of the position of the Jewish Race. The time at his disposal has been too short to enable him to go fully into the details of the plan or to discuss it with His Majesty’s Commissioner for the East Africa Protec- torate, and he regrets that he is therefore unable to pronounce any definite opinion in the matter.

He understands that the Trust desire to send some gentlemen to the East Africa Protectorate, who may ascertain personally whether there are any vacant lands suitable for the purposes in question, and, if this is so he will be happy to give them every facility to enable them to discuss with His Majesty’s Commissioner the possibility of meeting the view which may be expressed at the forthcoming Zionist Congress in regard to the conditions upon which a settlement might be possible.

If a site can be found which the Trust and His Majesty’s Commissioner consider suitable and which commends itself to His Majesty’s Government, Lord Lansdowne will be prepared to entertain favourably proposals for the establishement of a Jewish colony or settlement on conditions which will enable the members to observe their National customs. For this purpose he would be prepared to discuss (if a suitable site had been found and subject to the views of the advisers of the Secretary of State in East Africa) the details of a scheme comprising as its main features: the grant of a considerable area of land, the appointment of a Jewish Official as chief of the local administration, and permission to the Colony to have a free hand in regard to municipal legislation and as to the management of religious and purely domestic matters, such Local Autonomy being conditional upon the right of His Majesty’s Government to exercise a general control.

There is no need at present to consider the details of the terms upon which the land would be granted, whether by sale or lease, but His Lordship assumes that no portion of the administrative expenses of the settlement would fall on His Majesty’s Government, and the latter would reserve power to reoccupy the land if the settlement should not prove a success.

I am, Sir,

Your most obedient humble servant (signed) Clement Hill.

*) The original English text.