January
1 - 4: Herzl in Edlach.
January
2: Joseph
Chamberlain in East Africa. He finds a wonderful piece
of land for Jewish settlement.
January
6 - 26: Journey to Paris and London.
January
7: Paris: Herzl discusses the reply to the British
government with Nordau, Leopold
Greenberg and Alexander Marmorek and to take counsel on
subsequent action.
January
12: Herzl arrives in London.
January
13 - 16: Herzl begins the preparations for the expedition.
Meetings in the Foreign Ministry and with Lord Rothschild.
January 15: Meeting with Lord Rothschild.
Herzl shows him the correspondence with the British government
and asks for three million pounds from the I. C. A. for the
Jewish Eastern Company.
January
16: Lunch with Lord Rothschild and meeting with Sir
Thomas Sanderson, Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs in Downing
Street. Herzl submits the itinerary of the Commission
and the membership. Sanderson recommends Sir
Benjamin Baker, builder of the Aswan Dam, as irrigation
engineer.
Herzl is concerned about each and every detail.
January
21: Herzl travels to Paris.
January
24: Meeting with Max Nordau and Alexander Marmorek
in Paris.
January
28: Herzl appoints
Leopold Kessler as leader of the commission "for the
exploration of the feasibility of settling in the northern
half of the Sinai Peninsula.
January
29: Herzl and the Actions Committee in Vienna work
out the outline
of a Charter which is taken to Cairo by the expedition and
delivered to Leopold
Greenberg.
January
30: Leopold
Greenberg, Herzl's representative in London, leaves for
Cairo to carry on political negotiations.
February
10: Herzl writes to Lord Rothschild, reports about
the commission and asks for a meeting in Paris.
February
11: Herzl writes to the Grand Vizir and summarizes
the proposal: Jewish colonization, a loan of 2 million Turkish
pounds.
February
15: Herzl sends a new proposal to the Sultan: Colonization
in the Sanjak of Acre in return for a guaranteed annual payment
of 100.000 Turkish pounds.
Herzl is already thinking about Jewish colonization in Africa,
but makes one more attempt with the Ottoman Empire.
February
17: Herzl meets Dr. Abdullah Djevdet Bey whose poetry
he reviewed in the Neue Freie Presse. Djevdet offers his help
in Turkey.
Leopold
Greenberg reports from Egypt that it will be impossible
to obtain a Charter.
February
22: Boutros Ghali writes the conditions
for the Jewish settlement in Sinai.
February
23: Leopold
Greenberg leaves Egypt.
February
25: Herzl receives a telegram from the commission
in El Arish: "Vicinity has made a favorable impression."
February
26: Leopold
Greenberg arrives in Brindisi and sends a short telegram
whose obscurity of wording strikes Herzl unpleasantly.
February
27: Another favorable report from the expedition.
February
28: Max Nordau meets Leopold
Greenberg in Paris an sends a wire to Herzl: "Greenberg
had obtained everything that can possibly be conceded in an
official agreement."
March
2: Herzl receives Greenberg's report.
March
11: Oskar Marmorek returns to Vienna.
March
18 - April 9: Herzl's journey to Egypt.
March
25: Cairo. Herzl meets Lord
Cromer and Boutros Ghali.
The Zionist Commission
returns to Suez.
March
27: The Commission
meets Herzl in Cairo.
March
28: Another meeting with the Commission.
Herzl, Goldsmid and Stephens visit Lord
Cromer. He states that the Zionists should now demand
the concession from the Egypt government. For this purpose
the recommends Carton de Wiart, a lawyer.
March
29: Herzl meets Carton de Wiart. "We will give
up the word 'Charter' but not the thing itself."
March
30: Carton de Wiart talks to the lawyer of the Egyptian
government who recommends to hold the concession brief; also
it should be a lease and not a freehold. Herzl demands a 99-year
lease.
April
1: Herzl meets McIlwraithe, the legal adviser of
the Khedive. Herzl presents the Zionist proposal. McIlwraithe
promises that the government will make a counter-proposal.
April
2: Meeting with McIlwraithe. An immediate counter-proposal
is out of question. The size of the land and the duration
of the contract are discussed.
April
16: Herzl arrives in Paris and confers with Lord
Rothschild, Zadoc Kahn and other members of the ICA on the
method of its participation, in order to push the project
with the British government.
April
21: Herzl arrives in London.
April
22: Herzl meets Lord Rothschild who tells him that
Edmond
de Rothschild is delighted with the plan.
April
23: Herzl is received by Joseph
Chamberlain, who just came back from Africa.
The Chamberlain-Herzl negotiations of the "Uganda scheme"
are the first recognition of the president of the Zionist
Organization as representing the Jewish people.
April
25: Journey back to Paris.
April
26: Meeting with I.A.C. people in Paris who read
Stephen's report about the expedition to the Sinai Peninsula.
The reaction is favorable, but they are making reservations.
May
8: Goldsmid reports from Cairo that the negotiations
stand bad.
May
11: The El-Arish
project fails. Herzl writes in his diary: "I thought
the Sinai plan was such a sure thing that I no longer wanted
to buy a family vault in the Döbling cemetery, where
my father is provisionally laid to rest. Now I consider the
affair so wrecked that I have already been to the district
court and am acquiring vault No. 28."
May
19: Menachem
Ussishkin arrives in Vienna to prepare his visit in Palestine
to make land purchases for the Geulah Committee and to organize
the Yishuv.
May
23: Herzl writes to Wenzel
von Plehve, Russian Minister of the Interior and to Konstantin
Pobiedonostzev to ask for an audience with the Czar. The Kishinev
pogrom has a shattering effect on Herzl.
Herzl also turns to Bertha
von Suttner and asks for her assistance in this matter.
May
26: Herzl meets the Portuguese ambassador in Vienna
to ask for a territory habitable and cultivable by Europeans.
May
30: Herzl informs Zadoc Kahn and Lord Rothschild
about the failure of the El-Arish
Project.
June
4: Herzl renews his efforts with Great Britain and
again submits plans to Constantinople. He is pressing for
a Charter for Mesopotamia.
June
13: The British government is willing to to receive
a preliminary draft.
June
17: Herzl writes to Lord Rothschild that there is
a chance to get a good piece of land from the Sultan.
Beginning
of July: The first branch of the Anglo-Palestine
Bank - the Zionist Bank - opens in Jaffa. Its manager
is Zalman David Levontin, one of the founders of Rishon LeZion.
July
8: Herzl writes to Pauline Korvin-Piatrovska and
asks her to intervene for him in Russia. Wenzel
von Plehve calls for the suppression of the Zionist Organization
in Russia, the sale of Bank shares had already been forbidden.
July
20: Herzl writes to Leopold
Greenberg in London to do whatever possible to revive
the Sinai enterprise. "We must indeed take East Africa,
or at least the Charter, but we must not deceive ourselves
as to the fact that all the non-English Jews are against East
Africa. I shall have to use a great deal of patience for it,
whereas El Arish is popular." Herzl also prepares steps
to approach Portugal for a Charter for Mozambique, Belgium
for a territory in the Congo and Italy for a section of Tripoli.
July
18: Wenzel
von Plehve is ready to receive Herzl.
August
5 - 18: Herzl's journey to Russia.
August
7: Herzl arrives in St. Petersburg, where he seeks
Russian intervention with Turkey on behalf of his Zionist
proposals to secure Jewish settlement in Palestine, and to
permit open Zionist activity in Russia. He is received
twice by Count Wenzel
von Plehve, Russian minister of the interior, who is believed
to be responsible for the Kishinev pogrom. Herzl's most important
achievement is Wenzel
von Plehve's acquisition as a supporter of Zionism.
August
11: Herzl meets Jews from all circles in St. Petersburg,
a banquet is arranged by the Russian Zionists.
August
16: Stop in Vilna,
where a tremendous ovation is awaiting him. Old Reb Shleimele
lifts his hands over Herzl and pronounces the Priestly Benediction.
After
one day of rest in Altaussee,
Herzl leaves for Basle and the Sixth Congress.
August
20: Herzl arrives in Basel.
August
21: Herzl reports the Uganda offer and the Russian
journey to the Greater Actions Committee.
August
22: After attending the Shabbat
service in the Basel synagogue, Herzl invites a number
of leaders (the Russians Mandelstamm, Yelski, Bernstein-Kohan
and Tshlenov; besides Wolfssohn, Marmorek, Cowen and Zangwill)
into Joseph Cowen's room in order to win them over to the
Uganda Project. The final decision is to present the offer
to the Congress.
August
23 - 28: The Sixth
Zionist Congress convenes in Basel. It is the site of
confrontations between Herzl and his supporters and the Zionists
of Zion, who reject the plan for settlement in Uganda out
of hand. Herzl brings the Uganda scheme is a temporary measure,
emphasizing that Palestine remains Zionism's final object.
Herzl is supported by Max
Nordau, who terms the Uganda scheme a "Nachtasyl"
(refuge for the night), and is opposed by Russian Zionists.
August
29: "Die
Welt" publishes the declaration
of the British Government on the allocation of a "Jewish
territory" in East Africa.
August
31: Herzl in Konstanz
on Bodensee. Herzl's last meeting with Grossherzog
Friedrich of Baden in Mainau. Herzl presents his difficult
dilemma between East Africa and Palestine. "We would
be glad to renounce the good land of East Africa for the poor
land of Palestine. I in particular would see an honorable
rescue for our poor Jews if this exchange could be made."
September
5: Letter to Wenzel
von Plehve. Herzl reports on the Congress.
September
13: Herzl writes to Austrian Prime Minister Ernest
von Koerber. He encloses a copy of a letter Plehve addressed
to Herzl. He expresses the hope that also Austria will support
the Zionist undertaking.
October
27: Herzl travels to Edlach.
October
30: "Die
Welt" publishes Ussishkin's letter and Herzl's answer.
Menachem
Ussishkin opposes an expedition to Uganda. ("Entweder
Herr Ussishkin weiss einen kürzeren und besseren Weg,
um das jüdische Volk in den öffentlich-rechtlichen
Besitz Palästinas zu bringen - dann ist es von einem
so guten Zionisten nicht schön, dass er uns diesen Weg
nicht schleunigst angibt. Oder er weiss keinen - dann möge
er nicht mit leeren Redensarten die Einigkeit im Zionismus
stören, die mehr wert ist als ein paar Grundstücke
in Palästina.")
November
11: Herzl writes the "Letter
to the Jewish People".
December
4: Herzl reports in his diary: "The Russian
members of the A. C., particularly Usshiskin, Jacobson, etc.
are in open rebellion."
December
5: Leopold
Greenberg and Herzl hold consultations about the line
of activity to be pursued in England. Herzl has the impression
that the British government is withdrawing the East African
offer. Greenberg is to press once more for Sinai and El-Arish.
December
11: Herzl asks for an interview with the Austrian
Foreign Minister Agenor
Goluchowsky. He writes to Wenzel
von Plehve and repeats his request that the Russian ambassador
in Constantinople be directed to give his support to the Zionist
demands. He also pursues his efforts to open a branch of the
Jewish Colonial Trust in St. Petersburg.
December
14: In a letter to Sir Francis
Montefiore, President of the English Zionist Federation,
Herzl explains his position on Uganda.
December
19: Chaim Zelig Louban, a 27 year old student, attempts
to assassinate Max Nordau at a Chanukkah ball of the Paris
Zionist society. He approaches Nordau, cries "Death to
Nordau, the East African" and fires two shots. Nordau
writes to Herzl: "Yesterday evening I got an installment
on the debt of gratitude which the Jewish people owes me for
my selfless labors on its behalf. I say this without bitterness,
only in sorrow. How unhappy is our people, to be able to produce
such deeds."
In
"Die
Welt" Herzl publishes an account of the Kharkov conference,
together with a declaration calling upon those who had voted
for the ultimatum to surrender their mandates. In a subsequent
issue a digest of the minutes of the Conference appears.
Portrait:
Herzl, 1903
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