Editing Balfour Declaration (section)

== Drafting ==

Declassification of British government archives has allowed scholars to piece together the choreography of the drafting of the declaration; in his widely cited 1961 book, [[Leonard Stein (Liberal politician)|Leonard Stein]] published four previous drafts of the declaration.<ref name="Stein664">{{harvnb|Stein|1961|p=664}}: "Appendix: Successive drafts and final text of the Balfour Declaration"</ref>

The drafting began with Weizmann's guidance to the Zionist drafting team on its objectives in a letter dated 20 June 1917, one day following his meeting with Rothschild and Balfour. He proposed that the declaration from the British government should state: "its conviction, its desire or its intention to support Zionist aims for the creation of a Jewish national home in Palestine; no reference must be made I think to the question of the Suzerain Power because that would land the British into difficulties with the French; it must be a Zionist declaration."{{sfn|Gutwein|2016|pp=117–152}}{{sfn|Lieshout|2016|p=219}}

A month after the receipt of the much-reduced 12 July draft from Rothschild, Balfour proposed a number of mainly technical amendments.<ref name="Stein664" /> The two subsequent drafts included much more substantial amendments: the first in a late August draft by [[Alfred Milner|Lord Milner]] – one of the original five members of Lloyd George's War Cabinet as a [[Minister without portfolio (United Kingdom)|minister without portfolio]]{{efn|group=lower-roman|Milner's appointment to the Cabinet was due to his role as [[High Commissioner for Southern Africa]] during the [[Second Boer War]] – Britain's last large-scale war prior to WWI}} – which reduced the geographic scope from all of Palestine to "in Palestine", and the second from Milner and Amery in early October, which added the two "safeguard clauses".<ref name="Stein664" />

{| class="wikitable mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"  style="text-align:left; float:right;"
|-
! colspan="3"| List of known drafts of the Balfour Declaration, showing changes between each draft
|-
! scope="col" style="width: 14%;" | Draft
! scope="col" style="width: 43%;" | Text
! scope="col" style="width: 43%;" | Changes
|- style="vertical-align: top;"
| '''Preliminary Zionist draft'''<br />July 1917{{sfn|Halpern|1987|p=163}}
| <small>His Majesty's Government, after considering the aims of the Zionist Organization, accepts the principle of recognizing Palestine as the National Home of the Jewish people and the right of the Jewish people to build up its national life in Palestine under a protection to be established at the conclusion of peace following upon the successful issue of the War.</small><br />
<small>His Majesty's Government regards as essential for the realization of this principle the grant of internal autonomy to the Jewish nationality in Palestine, freedom of immigration for Jews, and the establishment of a Jewish National Colonizing Corporation for the resettlement and economic development of the country.</small><br />
<small>The conditions and forms of the internal autonomy and a Charter for the Jewish National Colonizing Corporation should, in the view of His Majesty's Government, be elaborated in detail and determined with the representatives of the Zionist Organization.</small>{{sfn|Rhett|2015|p=24}}
|
|- style="vertical-align: top;"
| '''Lord Rothschild draft'''<br />12 July 1917{{sfn|Halpern|1987|p=163}}
| <small>1.&nbsp;His Majesty's Government accepts the principle that Palestine should be reconstituted as the national home of the Jewish people.<br />2.&nbsp;His Majesty's Government will use its best endeavours to secure the achievement of this object and will discuss the necessary methods and means with the Zionist Organisation.</small><ref name="Stein664" />
| <small><ins>1.&nbsp;</ins>His Majesty's Government [*] accepts the principle <del>of recognizing</del> <ins>that</ins> Palestine <ins>should be reconstituted</ins> as the national home of the Jewish people. [*]<br /><ins>2.&nbsp;</ins>His Majesty's Government [*] <ins>will use its best endeavours to secure the achievement of this object and will discuss the necessary methods and means with</ins> the Zionist Organisation.<br /><nowiki>*</nowiki> ''large amount of text deleted''</small>
|- style="vertical-align: top;"
| '''Balfour draft'''<br />Mid August 1917
| <small>His Majesty's Government accepts the principle that Palestine should be reconstituted as the national home of the Jewish people and will use their best endeavours to secure the achievement of this object and will be ready to consider any suggestions on the subject which the Zionist Organisation may desire to lay before them.</small><ref name="Stein664" />
| <small><del>1.&nbsp;</del>His Majesty's Government accepts the principle that Palestine should be reconstituted as the national home of the Jewish people<del>.</del> <ins>and</ins> <del>2.His Majesty's Government</del> will use <del>its</del> <ins>their</ins> best endeavours to secure the achievement of this object and will <del>discuss the necessary methods and means with</del> <ins>be ready to consider any suggestions on the subject which</ins> the Zionist Organisation <ins>may desire to lay before them</ins>.</small>
|- style="vertical-align: top;"
| '''Milner draft'''<br />Late August 1917
| <small>His Majesty's Government accepts the principle that every opportunity should be afforded for the establishment of a home for the Jewish people in Palestine and will use its best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object and will be ready to consider any suggestions on the subject which the Zionist organisations may desire to lay before them.</small><ref name="Stein664" />
| <small>His Majesty's Government accepts the principle that <del>Palestine should be reconstituted as the national home of</del> <ins>every opportunity should be afforded for the establishment of a home for</ins> the Jewish people <ins>in Palestine</ins> and will use <del>their</del> <ins>its</ins> best endeavours to <del>secure</del> <ins>facilitate</ins> the achievement of this object and will be ready to consider any suggestions on the subject which the Zionist <del>O</del><ins>o</ins>rganisation<ins>s</ins> may desire to lay before them.</small>
|- style="vertical-align: top;"
| '''Milner–Amery draft'''<br />4 October 1917
| <small>His Majesty's Government views with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish race, and will use its 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 in any other country by such Jews who are fully contented with their existing nationality.</small><ref name="Stein664" />
| <small>His Majesty's Government <del>accepts the principle that every opportunity should be afforded for</del> <ins>views with favour</ins> the establishment <ins>in Palestine</ins> of a <ins>national</ins> home for the Jewish <del>people in Palestine</del> <ins>race</ins>, and will use its best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object <del>and will be ready to consider any suggestions on the subject which the Zionist organisations may desire to lay before them</del> <ins>, 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 in any other country by such Jews who are fully contented with their existing nationality</ins>.</small><ref name="Stein664" />
|- style="vertical-align: top;"
| '''Final version'''
| <small>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.</small>
| <small>His Majesty's Government view<del>s</del> with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish <del>race</del> <ins>people</ins>, and will use <del>its</del> <ins>their</ins> 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 <ins>by Jews</ins> in any other country<del> by such Jews who are fully contented with their existing nationality</del>.</small><ref name="Stein664" />
|}

Subsequent authors have debated who the "primary author" really was. In his posthumously published 1981 book ''[[The Anglo-American Establishment]]'', [[Georgetown University]] history professor [[Carroll Quigley]] explained his view that Lord Milner was the primary author of the declaration,{{efn|group=lower-roman|Quigley wrote: "This declaration, which is always known as the Balfour Declaration, should rather be called "the Milner Declaration," since Milner was the actual draftsman and was, apparently, its chief supporter in the War Cabinet. This fact was not made public until 21&nbsp;July 1937. At that time Ormsby-Gore, speaking for the government in Commons, said, "The draft as originally put up by Lord Balfour was not the final draft approved by the War Cabinet. The particular draft assented to by the War Cabinet and afterwards by the Allied Governments and by the United States&nbsp;... and finally embodied in the Mandate, happens to have been drafted by Lord Milner. The actual final draft had to be issued in the name of the Foreign Secretary, but the actual draftsman was Lord Milner."{{sfn|Quigley|1981|p=169}}}} and more recently, [[William D. Rubinstein]], Professor of Modern History at [[Aberystwyth University]], Wales, proposed Amery instead.{{sfn|Rubinstein|2000|pp=175–196}} Huneidi wrote that Ormsby-Gore, in a report he prepared for Shuckburgh, claimed authorship, together with Amery, of the final draft form.{{sfn|Huneidi|1998|p=33}}