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No. 45. Vienna, 6 November 1903 — 16 Marcheshvan 5664. 7th Year.

The Law of Aliens and the "Practical Ones".

When Dr. Rieger, who had rendered such high services to the Bohemian nation, concluded a compromise with the Germans — the so-called Punctations — we heard it said in Bohemia that the Old Czechs had deserted the banner of constitutional right and that the Young Czechs must raise it aloft once more; and to-day the Radicals say the very same thing of the Young Czechs.

One is involuntarily reminded of this manner of fighting when one looks about in our Zionism.

The Vienna party leadership, so we hear from Ekaterinoslav and Berlin, has for sheer "politicking and diplomatising" let the blue-and-white banner of Judah be quite scorched down there at the Equator, and we "Berliners" must raise it on high and carry it up to the Citadel of David. That confusion is thereby brought into our ranks is understandable, since whoever wishes to grasp Zionism entirely must understand not merely Jewish history but also a little of political economy and colonial policy, as well as theology, medicine and jurisprudence. I wish only to draw attention to the ABC of the law of aliens. We, and likewise the "practical Berliners", wish after all to settle Russian, Roumanian and Austrian Jews in Turkey, and thus to make use of the Turkish law of aliens.

The State exists only for its own subjects. Aliens have neither private nor public rights within the State — such was a principle of mediaeval law; the alien was placed under the special protection of the sovereign, and for this protection he had to pay well. Aliens — and everywhere these were, of course, the Jews — became a source of revenue for the sovereign. Only modern intercourse, with its railways, has brought it about that in the domain of private law the alien stands almost on an equal footing with the native.

Thus our Civil Code provides in § 33 that the alien shall enjoy the same civil rights as the native-born, provided that the State to which he belongs treats the citizens of this country as it treats its own. The Industrial Code provides in § 8 that foreigners, reciprocity being presupposed, shall be placed on an equal footing with natives as regards the carrying on of a trade. Public offices, however, are by Art. 3 of the Fundamental Law of the State of 21 December 1867, No. 142, open only to citizens of the State, as are public rights (Art. 4). The same provisions hold throughout Western Europe and are guaranteed by mutual treaties between States.

The alien has no political rights, but he has private rights; that is, he can acquire landed property abroad and carry on a trade, but he can be expelled on political and police grounds. Thus in the year 1870 France expelled all Germans from French territory.

In Turkey aliens can, of course, acquire no political rights. Only since the law of 16 July 1867, published also in the Austrian Imperial Law Gazette for the year 1868, No. 5, have aliens been able to acquire landed property in Turkey, with the exception of the province of the Hedjaz. Turkish subjects are accordingly also capable of acquiring land in Austria (Randa, Ownership). Foreign Jews can acquire land neither in the Hedjaz nor in Palestine, but they can in Asia Minor and Syria. In the Turkish Empire, gardens, vineyards, buildings or villages may not be established without the permission of the authorities, nor may fields be turned into forest.

These legal provisions we must keep most exactly before our eyes. (Vide Pinkus, Palestine and Syria.)

The "practical Berliners", according to the resolution passed on 19 October 1903, wish to carry forward with energy the work of the resettlement of Palestine, to acquire suitable lands in Syria as well, and in so doing to proceed "legally", striving for higher legal guarantees.

But since, as was stated above, buildings and villages may not be established without the permission of the authorities, the Practical ones, even if their activity is to be confined to Syria and Asia Minor, must surely with the Turkish authorities ver-