JEW AND ARAB

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 116, 12 November 1938, Page 29

JEW AND ARAB

PALESTINE'S TROUBLES

Soon after the establishment of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem at the very end of the eleventh century, Hugues de Payens, a Burgundian knight, moved to pity by the plight of pilgrims who were robbed and sometimes murdered by brigands, both Moslem and Christian, collected a small body of knights who organised themselves as a military monastic Order, under the Augustinian Rule, and called themselves Pauperes Commilitones Christi. Their self-imposed duty was to police the roads of Palestine and protect pilgrims from molestation. ' Later they were given headquarters in Jerusalem in the Haram-esh-Sherif and added the words Templique Salomonis to their title. They became known as the Templars, grew very rich, famous, and powerful, built great castles, intervened in politics, and were, ultimately destroyed by an avaricious French king.

Douglas V. Duff, the author of "Poor Knight's Saddle," during his service with the police in Palestine, emulated the exploits of the Poor Knights in their earlier and very useful simplicity, remarks a reviewer in "The Times Literary Supplement."

On his return as a visitor to the Holy Land after his retirement he was shocked, during the early months of last year, to find how much of his work had been undone, how lawless Palestine had become, and how unsafe the roads were once again. That is x the explanation of the title of his book, and the volume itself is devoted to an attempt to explain how and why British authority, which for a good many years had enforced almost complete peace and quiet throughout the Holy Land, had by 1937 so largely evaporated, in spite of the immense increase in the forces at the disposal of the Administration and the growth of the Public Security Estimates from £774,000 in 1931 to £2,231,000 in 1936.

It is a distressing story, based not only on official figures and the findings of the Royal Commission but on numerous conversations in their own languages with all sorts and conditions among the inhabitants of Palestine. The decay of authority is attributed to the timidity and vacillation of the central authorities, who are said to have failed to support the forces of order. They did not enforce the law against those who had violated it or were known to be conspiring to set it at naught, and weakly listened to delations, often ■ forged and greatly exaggerated, against anyone who had tried to enforce the law. To support his view of the extent to which this nervelessness and vacillation had undermined authority, Mr. Duff quotes an Arab officer of the police, once proud of his rank and position and loyal to his salt, as expressing delight at the prospect of the departure of the British, whose own behaviour had sickened him of their service.

In the course of these conversations the most diverse opinions are expressed for and against the proposed partition of Palestine, which was announced during the author's visit. Very interesting light is thrown on the ambitions of the Mufti of Jerusalem, the distracting quarrels among the Christian communities, and the internal divisions in some of these communities and among the Arabs and the Jews. A Samaritan was indignant because the Arabs were spoken of as such, as if they were a unit. "Who are the Arabs? They don't exist; they are merely a political dream." The book shows that usually they are divided among themselves, Husseini against Nashashibi, north against south, Qais against Yemen, farmers against townsfolk, highlanders against plainsmen, and the settled peoples against the Bedouin. Yet I under the skilful manipulation of the Arab leaders, whose methods are carefully described, these discordant factors have been marshalled in a United Front against the British, a front which, since these pages were written, has begun slightly to disintegrate owing to discontent with the rigorous dragooning employed by those Arab leaders and their predatory mercenaries.

In spite of those Jews who look upon Zionism as a curse and its use of Hebrew as a living language as sacrilege, Mr. Duff considers that the Jews now in Palestine are the soundest and most vigorous and hopeful force in the country. He has collected a great number of very interesting comments by Druses, Maronites, Moslems, and others on their proposed subjection to a dominant Jewish administration in the northern areas should partition come about.