"When the Balfour Declaration was released to the public at the end of the year, Gertrude attacked it viciously. Sir Arthur Balfour, the British Foreign Secretary, had written a letter to Lord Rothschild, leader of the Jewish community in England, promising "a national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine. The Balfour Declaration vowed not to prejudice "the civil and religious rights" of the Arabs already living in Palestine."