BENES, Eduard
Nine printed letters signed, each one page, folio 340mm by 220mm. Individually signed by Laurence Binyon, William Henry Bragg, Beatrice and Sidney Webb, Arthur Evans, Herbert Albert Laurens Fisher, John Maynard Keynes, George Edward Moore, Charles Morgan and Dugald Sutherland MacColl. Edvard Benes who served as the president of Czechoslovakia from 1935 to 1938, and again from 1939 to 1948. During the first six years of his second stint, he led the Czechoslovak government-in-exile during World War II. In 1938 he resigned after the Munich Agreement. The text of each letter reading in part "We think it might be timely that a few English students and writers should send you an expression of their sympathy and of their great admiration for your work and your character. In succession to Thomas Garrigue Masaryk, your master and co-founder of your State, you have been, through good times and evil, the authentic voice of Czechoslovakia. We appreciate the steadfastness and dignity of your bearing in the face of national calamity, and also of personal misrepresentation. We have faith that the nation which bred Huss and Comenius and which has preserved its courage, its language and its culture through so many centuries will continue to do so through all vicissitudes. Its literary and artistic renaissance of the last hundred years is rooted in that tradition; and has produced, and is producing, many powerful and brilliant minds. You, like Masaryk, have fostered this movement, which is of a kind that no political changes can extinguish. Though your place of honour in European history is already secure, it is impossible to think that your service to your country is at an end". The letter signed by MacColl has been heavily amended by George Bernard Shaw, with paragraphs being deleted and with an handwritten addition signed and dated "G.Bernard Shaw, 4/11/38" reading "I should like to join in any reasonable greeting to Benes. But this is damned nonsense, as Hitler as pointed out. Masaryk was a Slovene, not a Czech. There is no such thing as a Czechoslovakian nation; and Benes has about as much to do with Hus (not Huss) and Comenius as I do with Brian Boru. Why not cut out this literary guff, which will take all real meaning out of the salutation for Benes?". In addition there is a typed letter signed by Philip Wilson Steer, of identical content, and handwritten accompanying note. Fine.
ATTLEE, Clement
Four one page typed letters on 10 Downing Street, headed paper; 4to.; 24th August 1945 to 23rd December 1947. Signed 'C.R. Attlee' to Sir W.D. Ross, Provost of Oriel College, Oxford, from 1929 to1947 and Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University from 1941 to 1944. The first letter regards "the question of derequisitioning the buildings at Oriel in time for the beginning of the next Academic Year. I am asking the Minister of Works for a report on this matter, and will let you know the position as soon as I hear"; the following letter confirms that "the rooms occupied by the Ministry of Aircraft Production are being released on October 9, and those by the British Council on October 12. I hope that this will make it possible for the undergraduates coming up this term to live in College"; a third letter regards an appeal for the University Church in Oxfords and reads "While I sympathise with your proposal, I hope you will understand if I do not feel inclined to be one of the signatories of the appeal. I get many demands to support objects, many of which I am in sympathy with, but unless I can give a measure of active support or there is some very close personal interest, I have made it a general rule to refuse"; the fourth letter confirms that it is not necessary to appoint a successor following Mr Priestley resignation from the Royal Commission on the Press". Fine, folded for posting and punch holes to top margin for filing.
SITWELL, Osbert
Four pages, 4to. Signed at top of first and at the end. The piece features a series of observations on the relationship between pleasure and work. Francis Osbert Sacheverell Sitwell was born in 1892, the second child and first son of Sir George and Lady Ida Sitwell. Educated at Eton from 1905-1910, Sitwell expected to attend Oxford; however, his father sent him to prepare for entrance to military college. When Sitwell failed the entrance exams, his father arranged a commission for him in the Sherwood Rangers. After a year at Aldershot, Sitwell suffered a nervous breakdown and received a transfer to the Grenadier Guards stationed in London. While in London, Sitwell began socializing with an elite group that included Margot Asquith, Mrs. George Keppel and her daughter Violet (to whom Sitwell was briefly engaged) and Lady Sackville. At the outbreak of World War I he was posted to Flanders. Left unfit for active service by an injury, Sitwell returned to England where he began publishing anti-war satires and in 1923 he produced his sister's performance of Façade. In 1926 Sitwell made the first of many trips to the United States after which he visited the Italian Riviera, North Africa, and the Orient. From 1933 until the start of World War II, Sitwell contributed a weekly article to the Sunday Referee, a collection of these essays appeared in 1935 as Penny Foolish. "The whole essence of amusement lies in the change it provides from work. If, on the contrary, you are over given to pleasure, work becomes the amusement. Many people suffer from too much pleasure-chasing. Yet this states of affairs, objectionable as it may be to the puritans, offers certain advantages to the nation. It makes people work hard.when they work at all; it accounts for the doctrine of the nobility of labour; it was responsible for the popularity of the 'Late Great' War - and of the General Strike, too - with a large section of the community who, during these periods, worked for the first time in their lives, worked with zest , and found it most stimulating.at any rate for a little. Everybody, most especially the pleasure seeker, likes to feel he is useful, can 'do his bit', and would be missed should anything happen to him. And, to those not used to it, there is something dignified, attractive even, in finding themselves in a position where they find it necessary to 'keep a stiff upper-lip' and 'see it through' and all the rest of it. Alas! the chief reason of the popularity of the war, and the hold it has on the world, is the temporary and emotional escape it offers to those who lead lives that are stunted for too much work and not enough pleasure, or for too much pleasure and not enough work.The truth is that all organised pleasures are becoming dreary. The pleasure-seekers know that all is not well with them, but dare not ask themselves the reason. "See Ruritania from an arm-chair" we notice advertised and placarded up everywhere.But the whole point of travelling is to get out of your beastly old arm-chair, which you are so tired of, and to throw away your crutches, mental as much as physical, and walk. Thus, as pleasure, more and more organised, becomes increasingly dreary and stereotyped, before long, surely, a re-action will set in, and we may expect, instead of the present one, to read and advertisement of this sort "Do you need rest and recreation? See Ruritania under our auspices with every possible circumstance of discomfort and danger. Floods, fires and brigands guaranteed"? A crusade, without doubt, should be started for the derationalisation of pleasure. It must once more be imbued with vitality. Gradually it might even be possible to substitute intelligent entertainments for the stupid ones to which the habitual pleasure-addicts have become accustomed, and without their noticing it or being aware of any feeling of unease". Very good, some staining due to rusty paperclip, paper remnants to the first page, folding marks, some handling wear overall.
BUCKLAND WRIGHT, John
Limited edition, small folio, original pictorial white vellum, gilt, by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, with Cynthia Goddess of the Moon by Buckland Wright in gilt to covers, top edge gilt, others uncut, cloth slip-case. Number 77 of 100 specially-bound copies signed by the artist, from an edition limited to 500, wood-engraved illustrations. Buckland Wright took over four years to produce this work and it is considered to be his masterpiece. "His wood-engravings for this book have a romantic beauty that could hardly be surpassed and, as there are no less than 58 of them, they make a particularly sumptuous volume". (Reid in A Check List oh the Book Illustrations of John Buckland Wright). A near fine copy, with very light foxing to a couple of leaves but far less than usual. Cockalorum 175; Reid A47a
HUGHES, Ted
First edition; 8vo; original boards and dust jacket. Inscribed by the author to Henry Williamson, three days before publication, 'To Henry / always with thanks / "We that are young / Shall never see so much nor live so long" / Only an owl knows the worth of an owl / from Ted / 15th May 1967'. 'He was three things to me', wrote Hughes in his memorial address for Williamson, 'First one, then two, and finally, late in his life, three.' It began with 'Tarka the Otter'. 'I was about eleven years old when I found it, and for the next year I read little else. I count it one of the great pieces of good fortune in my life. It entered into me and gave shape and words to my world, as no book ever has done since. I recognised even then, I suppose, that it is something of a holy book, a soul-book, written with the life blood of an unusual poet. What spellbound me, as I read, was a sensation I have never felt so acutely in any other book. I can only call it the feeling of actuality. The icy feeling of the moment of reality. On every page of 'Tarka' was some phrase, some event, some glimpse, that made the hair move on my head with that feeling. In the confrontation of creature and creature, of creature and object, of creature and fate - he made me feel the pathos of actuality in the natural world. 'Tarka' put my life under an enchantment that lasted for years, and that gradually crystallised into an ambition to write for myself, and to fasten that strange feeling, that eerie sense of the moment of reality, in my own sentences.' 'The second Henry I encountered later in a book entitled 'Patriot's Progress.' A novel closely drawn from Williamson's own experiences of the First World War, Hughes admired the quality of its writing, regarding it as 'one of the very best records of trench warfare'. The final Henry was the man himself, whom Hughes got to know when he was a little over thirty, and Williamson was in his sixties. 'Still spellbound by his magical book, albeit quite unconsciously, I had found myself living where I still live, on Tarka's river, the Taw, in the middle of Devon, and pretty soon I made contact with Henry.' For several years they met quite often. Despite 'terrible arguments about his politics', Hughes admired the untamed essence of Williamson's character. 'The tremendous energy that had driven him through all those long books was still there, at any moment of the day, a torrent of surprises. His demon had a black side, which gave him his bad hours, but that was the powerhouse of his writing, it connected him to the dark world of the elements. It was what pulsed through the best of his writing, and it was genuinely him, and it was beautiful. And for that, I, for one, loved him'. Hughes' full-page inscription is expressive of indebtedness and warm respect. The middle section quotes the final lines of 'King Lear' and is followed by Hughes' reference to a bird for whom Williamson felt a close affinity, often signing his name with an accompanying drawing of an owl, a pictorial device that he also employed on the binding or final page of his published books A very good copy with light offsetting to free end papers, in a very good dust jacket, which is slightly dust soiled on the rear panel, and with two short tears at head of spine.
WHEELER-BENNETT, John W.
First edition; 8vo; original cloth boards. Inscribed on the front free end paper "For Anthony Eden, with warmest best wishes and very many thanks, John W. Wheeler-Bennett, May, 1948." Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon with his bookplate loosely-inserted and annotated by him in ink, eg on p.15 (commenting on Sir Nevile Henderson, British Ambassador to Germany from 1937-39), Eden writes: "Disastrous man and disloyal to me. Note his conversation with Buchanan in our Embassy Berlin day 1 . He proclaimed his delight & added now we shall be able to make friends with Germany". Sir John Wheeler Wheeler-Bennett 1902-1975) was an historian of German and diplomatic history, and the official biographer of King George VI. Wheeler-Bennett lived in Germany between 1927 and 1934 and witnessed at first-hand the final years of the Weimar Republic and the rise of Nazi Germany. During his time in Berlin, he became an unofficial agent and advisor to the British government on international events. In 1933, Wheeler-Bennett told the Royal Institute of International Affairs: Hitler, I am convinced, does not want a war. He is susceptible to reason in matters of foreign policy. He is greatly anxious to make Germany self-respecting and is himself anxious to be respectable. He may be described as the most moderate member of his party. Wheeler-Bennett abandoned this view after reading Mein Kampf, which caused him to recognize that Hitler had more radical goals. After the war, Wheeler-Bennett was a critic of Appeasement, and ten years after the Munich Agreement he wrote this book condemning it. Very good.
PANKHURST, Christabel
Typed letter signed on 'Votes for Women' National Women's Social & Political Union headed paper, 26th January 1909; 8vo one page. Christabel Pankhurst (1880-1958) writes to the Editor of the Evening Standard, reporting that 'Five Women have been arrested for seeking an interview with the Prime Minister at Downing Street and complaining that 'Mr Asquith has never, since assuming this office of Prime Minister, received a deputation from any of the Women's Societies which claim the vote. It will be generally admitted that this attitude on his part is unreasonable'. Christabel Pankhurst was at that time organising secretary of the National Women's Social & Political Union and goes on in the letter to state that further delay in a parliamentary vote would preclude women from voting in the upcoming election. Three Conciliation bills were put before the House of Commons, one each year in 1910, 1911 and in 1912 which would have extended the right of women to vote in the United Kingdom to around 1,000,500 wealthy, property-owning women. The 1910 vote failed. The Bill was debated again in May 1911 and was passed by a majority of 255 to 88 votes as a private member's bill and the Government of Asquith promised a week of government time to debate the Bill. However, in November Asquith announced that he was in favour of a manhood suffrage bill and that suffragists could suggest and propose an amendment that would allow some women to vote. The bill was consequently dropped.
SPENDER, Stephen
Autograph Letter signed, 1½pp, original envelope, 4to, Albergo, Verona, [Italy], 18th June [1951]. "It happens that as Wystan [WH Auden] was staying with us, I was the last person telephoned by Guy Burgess, who wanted to see him. On this occasion, he made the harmless remark that World Within World exactly expressed his own views about politics, which I thought might as well be reported. Apart from this I know nothing of him, for I have not seen him for at least five years. Just after this appeared, John Lehmann wrote me a letter saying I was wrong, for various reasons, about Guy. Two days ago, a Daily Express reporter turned up and to show him I knew nothing about Guy, I showed him John's letter, explaining that he must on no account quote it, but that his office should seek out John perhaps. However, they have now quoted it in the most sensational way possible. I feel an absolute cad." Spender's friend and fellow poet, WH Auden was suspected of playing a part in the escape to Moscow of Burgess and Donald Maclean. He had known Burgess for 20 years (they were at Cambridge together) and he had been at school with Maclean. Auden repeatedly evaded British intelligence's attempts to find out whether he was involved in the disappearance of Burgess and Maclean. The suspicion was triggered by this call to Spender by Burgess the day before he left England. Investigators thought Burgess may have been planning to flee to Auden's holiday villa on the island of Ischia off Italy, near Naples. MI5 files released show that Auden evaded the security services' attempts to make him explain the incident, and ignored a request for an interview. Burgess and Maclean left Britain on a Channel ferry on May 25 after a warning by fellow Soviet double agent Kim Philby - who was working for MI6 in Washington - that Maclean was about to be unmasked as a Russian spy. A source, possibly a journalist, told MI6 that Spender had said that he and his wife were certain Burgess had called their home twice between May 20 and 24 and was "most anxious" to speak to Auden. When they informed Auden, they said he replied that Burgess "must be drunk". Auden denied being told about the call, leading MI6 to conclude that "either Auden or Spender is deliberately prevaricating". MI5, reported "there seems little doubt that Spender and his wife hold or at least held pro-Communist views ." They also discovered a remarkable coincidence from the Italian police: Auden had arrived on Ischia three days after Burgess and Maclean fled. In late June 1951, MI6 reported that "Auden reluctantly admitted that Spender was probably right in saying he had told Auden of Burgess's telephone calls. Auden had been drinking heavily. It is likely that Auden was lying when he previously stated he remembered nothing of Burgess's calls." However, when he was eventually interviewed by Italian police at the end of the month, he returned to his original story that Spender had not mentioned the call. M16 was still desperate to interview him, but he refused to reply to a letter requesting a meeting and in October abruptly left for his adopted home in America. In Britain MI5's efforts to reconstruct Burgess's social network led to Anthony Blunt, who named the poet Christopher Isherwood and three others.
GILL, Lorraine
Two original signed drawings by Lorraine Gill; 105 by 150mm, ink on paper. Both drawn on the evening of 29th November 1995 at St George's Church, Gloucester Road, London where Ted Hughes recited some of his favourite T. S. Eliot's poems. Additionally signed by Raymond Keene chess grandmaster and former British Chess Champion, Sir Brian Tovey KCMG who was director of GCHQ and his wife Mary Tovey. Also present at the event but were Tony Buzan (best-selling author and inventor of mind maps) and T. S. Eliot's widow, Valerie. Tony Buzan, Ray Keene, Brian Tovey and Lorraine Gill were friends with Ted Hughes, meeting at the Lavender Bar on Lavender Hill, London and at Tony's home in Henley. Those five were part of the training for the Liechtenstien Global Academies in 1994-1997 where Tony lectured on brain power and creativity, Ray lectured on mind sports, Brian on strategic thinking, Lorraine on art and perspective, and Ted, on poetry, but also Shakespeare and creativity. Lorraine Gill grew up in the Australian Bush influenced by the extremes of nature and the starkness of the environment and its vividly distinctive colours. She came to Europe in 1966 winning a Scholarship to City and Guilds of London culminating in a Scholarship to Florence, Italy. Her first One Woman show followed in 1972 in London. Her work has been written about extensively by John Berger who has followed her progress for forty years. She has also been featured in BBC films both on Cezanne and on her own life and work; she has also featured in books on remarkable women; 'Interview with the Muse' and the 'Wise Virgin'. Fine paper, a little browned.
GOODHART, Philip, with Ursula Branston
First edition; 8vo; original boards and dust jacket. Signed by the author and 15 other members of the 1922 Committee on 5th December 1974. Signatures of Edward du Cann, Charles Morrison, Geoffrey Finsberg, John Biffen, Paul Bryan, Peter Morrison, Mark Carlisle, Nigel Fisher, David Walder, Bernard Braine, Godman Irvine, Airey Neave and three others. Additionally inscribed on the publication page " To Bernard - with gratitude for your guidance in exciting tomes - Gerry M." Bernard is likely to be Bernard Weatherill, later speaker of the House. Philip Goodhart (1925-2014) served a record 19 years as a secretary of the Conservative backbench 1922 Committee, and wrote its history. His study provided insight but was too discreet to be a definitive assessment of that highly influential body.on title page.(Independent Obituary). Following Edward Heath's defeat in the October 1974 election he resolved to remain Conservative leader, and at first it appeared that by calling on the loyalty of his front-bench colleagues he might prevail. In the weeks following the election defeat, Heath came under tremendous pressure to concede a review of the rules with the 1922 Committee and agreed to establish a commission to propose changes and to seek re-election. There was no clear challenger to Heath but Margaret Thatcher joined the leadership contest aided by Airey Neave's campaigning among backbench MPs she emerged as the only serious challenger. A fine copy in a fine dust jacket with bookplate to front pastedown.
SCHMIDT, Paul-Otto
Edited by R. H. C. Steed. First English edition; 8vo; original boards. Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon's copy with his bookplate loosely-inserted. Annotated and highlighted in pencil throughout by Eden, with extensive notes on the rear end papers. The front free endpaper is inscribed by Eden in pencil, "Sent to me by Schmidt. A.E." Paul-Otto Schmidt (18991970) was an interpreter in the German foreign ministry from 1923 to 1945. During his career, he served as the translator for Neville Chamberlain's negotiations with Adolf Hitler over the Munich Agreement, the British Declaration of War and the surrender of France. Sir Nevile Henderson, British Ambassador in Berlin until the outbreak of war thought that Schmidt showed showed considerable courage of a negative kind in that, despite his very special position, he resisted pressure to join the Nazi Party until 1943 . I think Schmidt might fairly be described as an enlightened, cosmopolitanised German nationalist, and find it a little hard on him that we have to hand him down to posterity as 'Hitler's Interpreter' and not, perhaps more aptly, as 'Stresemann's Interpreter' - a title to which he has at least an equal claim." Eden though in turn was critical of Henderson on page 86 "& yet he was pathetically pro-German". A fascinating document. A very good copy with a little wear to the extremities.
HANLEY, James
Limited edition; 8vo; original red cloth, frontispiece by William Roberts and an introduction by Richard Aldington. This is number 243 of an edition of 500, signed and numbered by the author on the limitation page. This copy is additionally inscribed by the author on the front free end paper, " The order was passed down the line. PULL UP. More confusion, bubble of voices, whisperings, curses, threats. "What's the matter?" "Lost the Way" O'Garra shivered" for William Edward Hopkins with complements. James Hanley" Quotation taken from page 13 of the book. "Hanley's depictions of sexual violence contrast strongly with the portrayals of tender, romantic homosexual love and desire between soldiers, by other writers of the period. Indeed, such overt and detailed accounts of homosexual desire and sexual violence were exceedingly rare. Censorship rules around homosexual and violent content were severe at the time these books were published. 'The German Prisoner' was only produced as a luxury edition and privately printed to allow its content to bypass conventional publication laws and escape censorship". (National Musuems Liverpool). A fine copy.
KHRUSHCHEV, Nikita Sergeyevich
First edition, first issue, 8vo; original paper wrapper, ink-stamp '3083' to upper cover. Khrushchev's speech, given to a closed session of Communist Party delegates on 25 Feburary 1956, in which he openly denounced Joseph Stalin (who died in March 1953). "Khrushchev recalled Lenin's Testament, a long-suppressed document in which Vladimir Lenin had warned that Stalin was likely to abuse his power, and then he cited numerous instances of such excesses" (Encyclopaedia Britannica Online). This Polish translation of the speech was the only version that circulated during the Cold War, the official Russian text being unknown until its publication in 1989. The CIA counterfeit edition, with false imprint Moscow 1959, was in fact a translation into Russian from the present Polish text, which was smuggled out of Moscow and leaked, via Israel, to the USA. Its consequences, by no means fully foreseen by Khrushchev, shook the Soviet Union to the core, but even more so its communist allies, notably in central Europe. Forces were unleashed that eventually changed the course of history. But at the time, the impact on the delegates was more immediate. Soviet sources now say some were so convulsed as they listened that they suffered heart attacks; others committed suicide afterwards. (Guardian). A fine copy, minor creasing to spine, light sunning to edges.
CARTER, Howard
Personal address book; 8vo; a lease leaf ring binder with original leather covers. The contains approximately 200 addresses many with telephone numbers, hand written by Carter in pencil. Addresses include various family members, friends, acquaintances and colleagues of the archaeologist, including the Duke of Alba in Madrid, Baron Harold de Bildt of the Royal Swedish Legation in Cairo, the Earl & Countess of Carnarvon (including Countess Almina, the wife of the 5th Earl of Carnarvon who had supplied financial backing to the search and excavation of Tutankhamun's tomb), Earl of Cadogan, William Carter, Samuel Carter, Albert Carter, Lady Colefax, John Drinkwater, Viscount Devonport, the Egyptian legation and consul in London, Lady Melchett, the Press Cutting Association, Sir Horace Rumbold, the Savile Club, Hassan Selius, Professor of Egyptology at the University in Cairo, Air Vice Marshal Francis Rowland Scarlett, Sir Harry Lloyd Verney (private secretary to Queen Mary). Carter was a solitary character and could often be abrasive and admitted to having a hot temper. It has been suggested Carter had an affair with the daughter of the Earl of Carnarvon, but was later rejected by Lady Evelyn herself, who told her daughter Patricia that "at first I was in awe of him, later I was rather frightened of him", resenting Carter's "determination" to come between her and her father. Harold Plenderleith, (whose details are in this book) an associate of Carter's at the British Museum, was quoted as saying that he knew "something about Carter that was not fit to disclose", which some have interpreted as meaning that Plenderleith believed that Carter was homosexual. There is, however, no evidence that Carter enjoyed any close relationships. Fine, a number of pages loose.
VENEREAL DISEASES: Contagious Diseases Acts of the 1860s
A collection of pamphlets bound in one volume. Recently bound in half calf, 8vo. The Contagious Diseases Acts were originally passed by the Parliament in 1864 with additions made in 1866 and 1869. In 1862, a committee had been established to inquire into venereal disease in the armed forces. On the committee's recommendation the first Contagious Diseases Act was passed. The legislation allowed police officers to arrest women suspected of being prostitutes in certain ports and army towns. Since there was no definition of prostitution, the question was left to the police officer's discretion, and women could be arrested even if there was no actual evidence of prostitution. The women were then subjected to compulsory examination. If a woman was declared to be infected, she would be confined in a lock hospital until she recovered or her sentence was completed. Men suspected of frequenting prostitutes were not subjected to the same treatment. The law was initially aimed at working-class women in towns near military bases, due to the concern that sexually transmitted infections were hampering Britain's forces. The original act only applied to a few selected naval ports and army towns, but by 1869 the acts had been extended to cover eighteen "subjected districts". The lack of provision for the physical examination of prostitutes' male clientele, became one of the many points of contention in a campaign to repeal the Acts. The book includes contemporary pamphlets/reports relating to the Acts, mostly in support of extending them, including one by Elizabeth Garrett (the first woman to qualify in Britain as a physician and surgeon). This phamphlet has the tipped in signature of her sister Millicent Garrett Fawcett. Fine.
Autograph manuscript signed; 4to; 16 pages. In this essay Harold Laski discusses the economic future of Palestine and of the Jews immigrating there following World War II. Laski was one of the most influential public intellectuals of the 20th century, a prolific author, professor at the London School of Economics, and leading advisor to the post war Labour governmen. Though normally regarded as a political theorist, Laski frequently wrote on the problems of international politics. Son of a Jewish cotton merchant in Manchester, he renounced his faith as a young man, but he developed close ties with leading Jewish figures on both sides of the Atlantic. At the Paris Peace Conference, following the Great War, Laski advised Felix Frankfurter who was in attendance as an observer for American Zionist interests. Frankfurter, with T.E. Lawrence, convinced Emir Faisal to sign the Faisal-Weizmann Agreement to create a workable co-existence between Palestine's Arab and Jewish populations as envisioned under the 1917 Balfour Declaration. Laski grew increasingly interested in Zionism. He declared his dedication to the cause in 1945, stating that he felt "like a prodigal son returning home." For Laski, the Jewish settlement of Palestine became, "a veritable crusade which obsessed" him (Kramnick and Sheerman, Harold Laski, A Life on the Left). This current esay presents Laski's views on the economic future of Palestine and the prospects for Jewish-Arab relations there. It was published in Palestine's Economic Future, ed. J. B. Hobman, introduction by Chaim Weizmann (London, 1946). Laski argues that the immigration of Jews to the region has had considerable economic benefits for Arabs and that "before 1917, Palestine, in an economic sense was a land without hope or prospects." He then describes at length the economic impact of the Jewish presence in Palestine and its neighbors. Laski makes a series of proposals for economic development involving public works and infrastructure, finance and taxation, education, government, and more. The essay also includes an extensive discussion of the history of British commitment to the establishment of a homeland for Jews in Palestine and a discussion of the demographics of immigrants. He concludes "The economic future of Palestine is an issue dependent, at every point, upon political decisions which will have to be made within a very brief period There is one principle I can at least affirm which is relevant to all the political decisions which lie immediately ahead. There is no evidence to show that the attempt to make Palestine a 'Jewish National Home' upon the basis of the Balfour Declaration has had any deleterious effect on Arab well-being; on the contrary, it is abundantly clear that it has helped, and not hindered, Arab advance. To this must be added two other things. In an experiment of the scale and importance of that attempted in Palestine, success largely depends upon faith in its validity in the major officials concerned "The second thing to note is that the implication of a 'Jewish National Home' in Palestine is a thorough-going reorganization of the internal relations of a semi-feudal Arab society in which the privileges of a small group of rich effendi are deeply involved; and this, in its turn, is bound, if it continues, to have vital repercussions on the whole social framework of the Middle East. This is the real source of the resistance to large-scale Jewish immigration. The Jew brings with him Western ideas, often Western socialist ideas, which cut right across a traditional historical pattern the beneficiaries of which seek at any cost to defend their claims. They, therefore, mobilize, both religious fanaticism and national passions to arrest changes in which they see the threat to their privilege, and seek to use the dislike of the masses to change before they see that the change is to their advantage "If the Palestine experiment could have any chance of success in the next decade,
