D O C U M E N T S 3 9 3 , 3 9 4 D E C E M B E R 1 9 2 4 3 8 9
393. From Willem de Sitter
Leyden, 10 December 1924
Dear Colleague,
With this official letter, the answer to which I happily anticipate, I would like to
send you a personal request that you not forget that you have promised to me and
other colleagues that you intend to be here on 9
February.[1]
I am definitely count-
ing on it—and if you happen to forget to send in the official response [I fear that
the possibility of this event cannot be entirely
excluded!],[2]
I shall nonetheless as-
sume that you will be here and will be walking along in the procession.
As concerns the ladies’ tickets—if you do not have any particular use for them,
it is better to write me that you do not need them. They will then become available
again for others. But you naturally do have a right to them; and it is always better
if you exercise your right, if you know how.
With cordial regards, very sincerely yours,
W. de Sitter.
394. From Chaim Weizmann
77 Great Russell Street, W.C.1 [London,] 12 December 1924
Dear and esteemed Professor,
I hope to be in Berlin in a few weeks and to be able to speak at length with you
then about all of our affairs. Today, however, as the chance to send you a few per-
sonal words presents itself, I would like to write about some things that more re-
cently have been very close to my heart.
It is unmistakable to anyone in the midst of this work that over the course of the
last few months a deep change has occurred in the character of our work and cor-
respondingly also in the evaluation it receives from our friends and foes. There has
been since the middle of this year increased immigration that, if it persists, will af-
ford us 30,000–40,000 new settlers a year in
Palestine.[1]
These immigrants do not,
as earlier, only belong to the penniless classes; rather, on the contrary, a high per-
centage of small businessmen and artisans is now coming into the country, some of
them with not insignificant assets, because they believe that there are already op-
portunities for permanent settlement by people of their class. This psychological
fact is in itself very significant. On the other hand, we have been in a position also
to absorb a larger number of pioneers
[chalutzim][2]
over the course of these past
months, particularly due to the tobacco planting. But the decisive element in this