Chestnuts by the State of Israel
- London, 2 November 1917. Arthur James Balfour, Secretary of Foreign Action of Great Britain, wrote a letter to the Jewish community leader Lionel Wakter Rothschild to send her to the written Federation Sionista.Este, called the Balfour Declaration, is considered the first gesture that a world power recognized the right of the Jews to form a State.
The gesture of Arthur James Balfour had a special influence, since at that time Palestine was British protector. He met with scientist Balfour Chai Weizmann, and some believe that the seed of the declaration was sown at that meeting.
During World War I, a new kind of gunpowder was imposed: the cordita. It had more power, it was more accurate and it didn't produce smoke. But acetone was one of the components of the range, and obsolete production methods allowed a lot of wood to be wasted and a lot of effort into acetone. So Winston Churchill, then British ammunition minister, turned to the young Jewish chemist Chaim Weizmann, who had invented the method of getting acetone by fermenting maize.
But in the war economy, the shortage of maize was becoming more severe and the German submarinists were constantly threatening the supply of maize from the United States. Weizmann then applied his method to an easily accessible indigenous product: chestnuts.
Winston Churchill came to the young Jewish chemist Chaim Weizmann, who had invented the method of obtaining acetone by maize fermentation.
The chestnut collection work was entrusted to the children of the school; in other words, the children were exploited to ensure the supply of chestnuts. But chestnut harvesting worked better than transport and tons of chestnuts accumulated in train wagons began to rot. These complaints came to Parliament and to those who were enriching child labour. But Churchill immediately silenced them because the goal justified the means and the goal was to do anything that would allow the war to win.
Weizmann's work was fundamental for the production of acetone and therefore of cordita. As a token of gratitude, Secretary Balfour met with the scientist and told him he could ask for what he wanted in payment of his help. Weizmann asked him to create a Jewish state.
There is no evidence of this meeting and, of course, many other factors influenced the creation of the State of Israel. But this story is a sign of the interest and attitude of the Western powers towards the state of Israel.
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