made up its mind, and was determined to have a Jewish Legion of some kind, I begged them to lay aside all differences and help me to make a success of a movement which was bound to affect Jews, one way or another, throughout the world. In conclusion, I said I would rather know who were my friends, and asked all those who did not intend to further this scheme, which after all was a scheme propounded and adopted by the British Government, to retire. Not a man moved.

While I was making my address a note was passed to me from hand to hand. On opening it I read, "Can you dine with me this evening? I should like to join your new Battalion. N.P." I little knew when I scribbled back: "So sorry, am engaged," what serious consequences hung on my answer, for I feel sure that Neil Primrose would not have been cut off in his prime had I dined with him that night and "recruited" him for the Jewish Battalion, but I never saw this very gallant officer again. He went out to Palestine soon afterwards, where he met his death while leading his men in a charge.

To return to the meeting: when I found that not one of our opponents was prepared to declare himself an open enemy of the policy of H.M.'s Government, I said that as the formation of the various Committees connected with the Regiment was an essentially Jewish matter I would now retire, and I asked Lord Rothschild to take the Chair.

Within half an hour I was summoned by Brigadier-General Sir Auckland Geddes, as he then was. The General appeared to be extremely flurried and annoyed. Apparently, immediately after I had left the meeting, two gentlemen had gone straight from it to Sir Auckland, and made a bitter attack on me for having, as they said, held a Zionist Meeting in the War Office.

I assured him that there was no attempt at holding a Zionist meeting, but that a number of representative Jews and others had been called to help me in carrying out the policy of the War Office, and I pointed out that it was entirely due to the two gentlemen who complained, that any question of Zionism had been raised.

Why any Jew should be an anti-Zionist passes my comprehension, for the Zionist ideal in no way interferes with the rights and privileges of those fortunate Jews who have found happy homes in friendly countries, but aims at establishing a national home for those less happy ones, who, against their will, are forced to live in exile, and who have never ceased to yearn for the land promised to their forefather Abraham and his seed for ever.

Yet I will have to show that, as there were Sanballats[1] who bitterly opposed the restoration in the days of King Artaxerxes 2,500 years ago, so there were modern Sanballats who bitterly opposed the restoration in the days of King George.

CHAPTER III.

On the 23rd August, 1917, the formation of the "Jewish Regiment" was officially announced in the London Gazette, and I was appointed to the command of a Battalion.

At the same time it was officially intimated that a special Jewish name and badge would be given to the Battalions of this Regiment.

On hearing of this determination the Sanballats immediately got very busy. Heads were put together, and letters written up and down the land to all and sundry who were likely to serve their purpose, with the result that, on the 30th August, 1917, a deputation waited upon Lord Derby (then Secretary of State for War), for the purpose of making representations against the proposed name and badge of the Jewish Regiment, and, in fact, against the formation of any such unit as a Jewish Battalion.

One member of this Deputation went so far as to represent to Lord Derby that Lord Rothschild, the head of the celebrated Jewish family, to whom, as representing the Jewish people, Mr. Balfour later on addressed the famous declaration, was also opposed to the formation of a Jewish Regiment.

Lord Rothschild assured me that this was not the case; for, once it became the policy of the British Government to form a Jewish Regiment, he felt bound as a patriotic Jew to back it up and do all in his power to make it a success. No little thanks are due to Lord Rothschild for the way he devoted himself to the comfort and welfare of the Jewish Battalions, from the first day they were formed.

The result of the Deputation was that the name "Jewish Regiment" was abolished, and no Jewish badge was sanctioned. All Jewish Battalions raised were to be called "Royal Fusiliers."

But our worthy friends might have saved themselves all the trouble they took, and the trouble they gave to the War Ministry, because, from the moment that the battalions were formed, although they were known officially as Royal Fusiliers, yet unofficially, everywhere, and by every person, they were known solely as the Jewish Battalions.

Lord Derby made the mistake of thinking that these few rich men represented the Jewish masses. A greater mistake was never made, for, from my own experience, I can vouch for the fact that they are altogether out of touch with the thoughts and feelings of the vast majority of the Jewish people.

What a different tale I should have to tell had men such as these played up to the policy of England. Had their vision only been broader, they would have said among themselves, "This is a policy we do not like. It may affect us adversely, but it is the policy of England, and England in peril, and we must therefore bind ourselves together and make it a success."

If they feared that these Jews from Russia and Poland would not worthily uphold Jewish traditions, they might have gone to the Secretary for War and told him their fears, and said that, as it was absolutely necessary for world Jewry that this experiment of creating Jewish Battalions should have a fair chance, they would request his aid in this matter, and ask that at least twenty-five per cent. of every battalion be composed of Jews from England, who, having seen service in France, would therefore give some necessary and valuable stiffening to these raw Jewish units.

With such a stiffening, and a solid English Jewry at the back of the Jewish Regiment, what a triumphant page in Jewish history these battalions would have written!

Instead of this, every possible obstacle was placed in the way of success. Interested parties scoured the East end of London and the big provincial cities, advising young Jews not to enlist. Even in France the Jewish soldiers serving in the various units there were told by Jews who ought to have known better that they should on no account transfer. The result of this was that recruiting went on very slowly, and instead of being able to form a Jewish legion in the course of a few weeks, as could easily have been done out of the 40,000 Jewish young men in England alone, it took over four months to form even one battalion.

I happened by chance one day to meet a prominent member of the Sanballat deputation in the War Office, and, in the course of conversation, I asked him why he objected so strongly to the formation of a Jewish Regiment. He replied that