From the 1920s a change began to take place. Great Britain received the mandate for Palestine in the spring of 1920 and on July 1 of the same year, Herbert Samuel became the first civilian high commissioner. Samuel, a British Jew closely associated with the Zionists, was extremely helpful in bringing about the Balfour Declaration. All Zionist aspirations, it seemed, had now been realized. Aliyah began anew, although not at the rate that Weizmann would have wished; the fervor and enthusiasm of 1919 had passed. Some time after Weizmann was heard asking sadly, "People of Israel - where are you?"