WHAT’S THE STORY?

AS has been widely reported, today is the centenary of the issuing of the Balfour Declaration in which the British Government pledged its support for the creation a Jewish “national home” in Palestine.

The context of the declaration is crucial – the First World War had made Palestine a battleground, one that is often forgotten in the histories that concentrate on the Western Front.

Britain and its allies had declared war on the Ottoman Empire, which then controlled Palestine, in 1914, and British forces struck from Egypt towards the southern part of the Empire over a sustained period.

During the war, Zionism – the movement for a Jewish homeland in Palestine – had been growing in influence and its leaders most favoured that state being a British protectorate.

In turn, Britain wanted the support of Jews worldwide for the war effort, and the declaration would be a powerful propaganda tool against the Germans and their allies who were also seeking Jewish support.

WHAT DOES THE DECLARATION ACTUALLY SAY?

“HIS Majesty’s government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”

It was just 67 words long but it was the first time a major power had backed the idea of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. In hindsight, it can be seen that the declaration made Israel inevitable. Also in hindsight that part about “nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine” proved to be wishful thinking.

WHO WROTE IT?

ALMOST certainly it was drafted by several people including the politician Leo Amery, who had close links to Zionists but was also keen to preserve the rights of the people then living in Palestine. It was ultimately written by Arthur Balfour, then the Foreign Secretary, to Lord Walter Rothschild, scion of the famous banking family and a prominent member of the Zionist movement with close links to its leader Chaim Weizmann, a brilliant scientist whose inventions helped Britain win the First World War, and who would later be first President of Israel.

WHO WAS ARTHUR BALFOUR?

MUCH of the deliberations about the declaration will miss out on the fact that Balfour was a Scot, not least because the man conducted himself as the quintessential Englishman. He was born at Whittingehame House in East Lothian, the son of the immensely wealthy James Maitland Balfour, a Conservative MP, and Blanche Gascoyne-Cecil, the daughter of the Marquess of Salisbury whose brother Robert would later become Prime Minister. He was named Arthur after his godfather, the Duke of Wellington.

Precociously bright from a young age, Balfour inherited his father’s estate at the age of just eight when James Maitland Balfour died of tuberculosis aged just 36 – the Balfour Monument on Traprain Law in East Lothian commemorates him and not his son.

Arthur was educated at Eton and Cambridge University where he studied philosophy, a subject that fascinated him all his life. He suffered another family tragedy when his cousin May Lyttelton died of typhus when he was 27 – he had been deeply in love with her and they were to be married. He spent the rest of his life as a bachelor and was rumoured to have had a 40 year affair with Mary Charteris, the Countess of Wemyss and March.

Gracious and charming, but also quite aloof, he was a brilliant debater and took easily to politics though was never happy with the managerial side of the job.

He became MP for Hertford in 1874, later moving to Manchester East, and served as private secretary to his uncle, Robert Cecil, Lord Salisbury, the then foreign secretary. When Salisbury became Prime Minister Balfour was appointed Secretary for Scotland, as the post was then known in 1886, before becoming Chief Secretary for Ireland a year later – the surprise appointment allegedly originating the phrase “Bob’s your uncle!”

HE CAUSED TROUBLE IN IRELAND?

AN avowed Unionist, he strictly enforced the law which clamped down on protests by agitators for home rule and land reform – he was called Bloody Balfour by his opponents - but also created the Congested Districts Board which did much to alleviate poverty in overcrowded parts of Ireland.

He served two terms as Lord of the Treasury and Leader of the House of Commons either side of three years in opposition before he succeeded his uncle as Prime Minister in 1902. The Entente Cordiale with France was the greatest achievement in his time in office which ended with his resignation in 1905.

He remained in opposition as Conservative Party leader until the Asquith wartime coalition in 1915 when he became First Lord of the Admiralty in succession to Winston Churchill. A year later he was appointed Foreign Secretary in Lloyd George’s coalition government, setting the scene for his famous declaration. After the war he served as Lord President of the Council but his health declined. When he died in 1930, having amassed 28 years in Government – second only to Churchill – the Balfour Declaration was hardly mentioned, most people preferring to remember him for the Education Act of 1902.

In true philosophical style he once famously wrote: “Nothing matters very much and few things matter at all.”

The Balfour Declaration, however, still matters a lot even after 100 years.