Autograph Letter Signed on letterhead in English to Dr. Chaim Weizmann

ROTHSCHILD, LORD LIONEL WALTER.

Tring (England)

24th August, 1920

Lionel Walter Rothschild (1868-1937), was the eldest son of Nathan Mayer Rothschild, founder of the English branch of the international banking family. Indicative of the active part he played in the Zionist movement is the fact that the Balfour Declaration was addressed to “Dear Lord Rothschild.” See EJ, Vol. IV, col. 131 (facsimile of Balfour Declaration). Rothschild writes here to Weizmann that he is about to set out for Africa on Sept. 2nd and is not expected back before November 15th. In view of the urgency of matters, the Economic Council should be formed without him. He commends Sir Robert Waley Cohen as the man to focus upon Zionist emigration as Waley Cohen is "well-connected to the oil magnates." In Rothschild’s own personal opinion, there should be no mass emigration to Palestine for at least ten years. Sir Robert Waley Cohen (1877-1952) was a senior partner of the Shell Oil Company, which was later amalgamated with the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company. In the 1920s, for a brief time, he collaborated with Chaim Weizmann. Generally though, he was adverse to the cause of political Zionism. Despite his reservations, he did agree to act as Chairman of the Economic Board of Palestine and was instrumental in establishing the oil refinery in Haifa. See EJ, Vol. V, cols. 684-5