The British Government decided to launch the Balfour Declaration for the following reasons -
- to gain support for winning World War I.
- to strengthen British access to the Suez Canal and the overland route to India.
- to fulfill Biblical prophesy.
- to take advantage of Zionist preference for British, rather than French, protection.
- to encourage German Jewish soldiers to desert.
- to persuade Russian Jews to support the Allies against Bolshevism.
- advocacy by Chaim Weizmann who, as a chemist, had discovered a process for extracting acetone from maize - vital for the manufacture of explosives.