CHAMPION OF ZIONISM

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 634, 10 April 1929, Page 6

CHAMPION OF ZIONISM

SIR. A. DAVIES THANKED JEWISH APPRECIATION Appreciation of his sympathy with the i Zionist movement was conveyed to Sir Alfred Davies yesterday by a deputation from the Auckland Zionist Society, headed by the president, the Rev. S. A. Goldstein. Addressing Sir Alfred, Mr. Goldstein said he was not a stranger as they had read many of his interesting addresses. The Jewish community in Auckland was only small, but it was a living organisation and a great power for good. Mr. L. Phillips endorsed, the previous speaker’s remarks and said that Sir Alfred was one of Zionism’s most distinguished friends. He had shown that he was in fullest sympathy with its ideals and his visit to Palestine had served to strengthen his adherence to the Zionist movement. “My sympathy with the Zionist movement is not of yesterday,” said Sir Alfred. “It is probably due to my being a member of one of the small nations of the world. I am a Welshman.” Viewed only on its linguistic side, Zionism meant much to the world, said Sir Alfred. Not long ago Hebrew was a dead language, but today it was one of the official languages of Palestine. He had seen the great work being done in re-peopling the lapd, and among other things, the saving of life through infant welfare work, promoted by the generosity of

members of the Auckland Zionist Society. “In Zionism you have a great possession,” concluded Sir Alfred. It was an ideal of present-day Jewry, and would either become a laughing stock of the world as a great failure, or become the deliverance of the Jewish nation and an example to the rest of the world.