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No. 46. | Vienna, II. November 1904. — 3 Kislev 5665. | 8th Year.

On the Question of Organisation.*)

II.

Even if, as has been shown, a radical alteration of the Organisation Statute in the sense proposed could prove very dangerous to the Organisation, it cannot on the other hand be maintained that this Statute has already created an ideal organisation. Seven years' experience has revealed various defects and gaps. The latter are to be filled so far as possible, the former removed.

One of the most important defects is the want of clarity in the relation between the Greater and the Inner A.-C. It is disputed whether the Greater A.-C. is co-ordinate with, subordinate to, or superior to the Inner A.-C. The practice hitherto has been that the governing body of the movement is the Inner A.-C., which need consult the Greater A.-C. only in important matters. This practice rested upon § 24 of the O.-St., which reads: "The Inner A.-C. conducts the business of the Zionist movement, but is bound to convene the Greater A.-C. for the discussion of important matters ...", and in which only one kind of resolution was reserved to the Greater A.-C. alone, namely on questions affecting the Territorial Organisations; and further upon § 4 of the O.-St., in which the structure of the Organisation is so laid down that the supreme organ is the Congress, the next the Inner A.-C., and only in the third rank comes the Greater A.-C. At the last session of the Greater A.-C., however, the correctness of this practice was disputed by certain members, who maintained that the true governing body was the Greater A.-C. and that the Inner A.-C. was merely its bureau. They rely upon § 23 of the O.-St., which reads: "The executive organ of the Congress is the A.-C. elected by it ... and responsible to it alone", by A.-C. understanding the Greater A.-C. It would be idle to discuss here which of the two views is the correct one in the sense of the Statute; but it is necessary to remove the obscurities that made such a dispute possible at all, and to give the Statute a wording by which the competences are precisely delimited. On the one hand, therefore, it must be placed beyond doubt that the Inner A.-C. is the governing body; on the other, the competence of the Greater A.-C. must in return be given more substance. The present provision, that it must be heard with its counsel in important matters, is far too vague, especially since it rests with the Inner A.-C. to decide what it considers important, and one may hear counsel without being obliged to follow it. Certain important matters should accordingly be expressly reserved to the Greater A.-C. For instance, besides the questions of the Territorial Organisations and of the convening of Congress already reserved in the existing Statute, something like the following: definitive agreements with Governments, the founding of new institutions, proposals to the Congress, expenditure above 3000 pounds sterling. The Greater A.-C. would thereby be given a wider sphere of action and greater responsibility, while at the same time the legitimate wish would be met that in very important matters the capable men of our movement who happen not to reside at the seat of the Central Office should also be heard, yet without thereby endangering the unity of the central leadership.

If, now, such power is to be conceded to the Greater A.-C., it must not be so unwieldy a body as it is at present. In a body of more than 50 members, scattered all over the world, one cannot know every man intimately; one does not know how much confidence may be placed in each individual; and such a body cannot be brought together quickly enough when it is needed. The number of members of the Greater A.-C. should therefore be limited, say, inclusive of the Inner A.-C., to 23, the number of the Lesser Sanhedrin. In that case the whole A.-C. could, and indeed must, coincide completely with the Supervisory Board of the Bank, which for the reasons given above has hitherto not been the case.

*) Vide "Die Welt" No. 45.