Balfour Declaration

The name Balfour Declaration is applied to two key British government policy statements associated with Conservative statesman and former Prime Minister Arthur Balfour.

• The first is the Balfour Declaration of 1917: An official letter from the British Foreign Office headed by Arthur Balfour, the UK’s Foreign Secretary (from December 1916 to October 1919), to Lord Rothschild, who was seen as a representative of the Jewish people. The letter stated that the British government “view[ed] 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”.

• The second is the Balfour Declaration of 1926, recognized the self-governing Dominions of the British Empire as fully autonomous states.

Balfour Declaration of 1917

In the Balfour Declatation of 1917, the British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour wrote an official letter to Walter Rothschild (who was seen as a representative of the Jewish people) expressing the support of the British government for the creation of a Jewish national home in Palestine. It was a reason for the USA entering the First World War, it acting as the price for the Jewish community there using its influence to manipulate American opinion towards intervention against Germany.
The declaration reads as follows:

Foreign Office, November 2nd, 1917.
Dear Lord Rothschild, I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty’s Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet: “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”. I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.
Yours sincerely Arthur James Balfour

Balfour Declaration of 1926

For the declaration which communicated the British government’s support for a Jewish national home in Palestine see Balfour Declaration of 1917

The Balfour Declaration of 1926, named after the British Lord President of the Council Arthur Balfour, Earl of Balfour, was the name given to a report resulting from the 1926 Imperial Conference of British Empire leaders in London. It states that the United Kingdom and the Dominions:

“They are autonomous Communities within the British Empire, equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs, though united by a common allegiance to the Crown, and freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations.

The inter-imperial relations committee, chaired by Balfour, drew up the document preparatory to its approval by the imperial premiers on November 15. It was first proposed by South African Prime Minister James Barry Munnik Hertzog and Canada’s Prime Minister at that time, William Lyon Mackenzie King.
The document accepted the growing political and diplomatic independence within the dominions, in particular Canada, since World War I. It also recommended that the governors-general, the representatives of the King who acted for the Crown as head of state in each dominion, should no longer also serve automatically as the representative of the British government in diplomatic relations between the countries. In following years, High Commissioners were gradually appointed, whose duties were soon recognised to be virtually identical to those of an ambassador. The first such British High Commissioner was appointed to Ottawa in 1928.
The conclusions of the conference were restated by the 1930 conference and incorporated in the December 1931 Statute of Westminster by which the British Parliament renounced any legislative authority over dominion affairs except as specifically provided in dominion law.