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1917 November 2, ARTHUR BALFOUR
British Secretary for Foreign Affairs, he sent Lord Walter Rothschild a letter declaring the British government's sympathy and support for the Zionist cause. Cloaked in ambiguity, the meaning of the declaration was to be long debated; the Arabs insisted on an independent Arab state in Syria and Eretz Israel, the French on keeping to the Sykes-Picot Treaty. In spite of this, Britain felt that a Jewish state would: 1) provide a base between India and the Suez, 2) promote Jewish financial support in America for the British war effort , 3) create British support by the Jews in the Central Powers and 4) convince Russian Jews to keep fighting in the war
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