ABSTRACT
The repercussions of the affairs of 1917 and the creation of the Balfour Declaration still resonate in global politics. At the outset Samuel and Edwin Montagu spoke for very different viewpoints on the issue of political Zionism, but ironically it was Montagu who had the greater hand in the final wording of the Balfour Declaration. On 17 July 1917, Montagu took his position in the War Cabinet as Secretary of State for India. On 23 August, Montagu issued his memorandum, "The Anti-Semitism of the Present Government". Late in August 1917, shortly after Montagu released his memorandum, the War Cabinet met to discuss the declaration on Palestine. According to Lady Violet Bonham-Carter, Montagu's eventual acceptance of a position in the Lloyd George Government was best described by Winston Churchill. At the end of 1916 the effects of a worsening war to be helped prompt the downfall of Prime Minister Asquith's government.
