HOMELESS HEBREW.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXV, Issue 8303, 23 November 1915, Page 7

HOMELESS HEBREW.

WILL HE COME BACK TO PALESTINE ?

Ever since the middle of tho second century, when Hadrian subdued a revolt of the Hebrews in Palestine and rebuilt Jerusalem as a Roman military colony, the Hebrews have been,- as Byron sang of them, "'Tribes of the wandering foot and weary breast, How shall ye floe away and be at rest ?"

After the final fall of their historical city the great dispersion of the nation took place, anl almost every country under the sun holds its quota of the great homeless people. I3ut no ract has maintained so perfectly their racial characteristics, or conserved so loyally their Unitarian theology, the habits, customs, and social laws' that they carried away with them from the city of David, when to fulfil their destiny they took their devious ways among the nations of the earth. In tho words of Byron again,

"The wild dove hath her nest, the fox his cave, Mankind their country, Israel, but ,:.. the^ grave." ... .. ;■■■'!■

,'■ Times innumerable have efforts ■ t>een /made, to Teassemble the Jewish- people •■in one common centre^ and their 'lsadj ers have cast envious eyes upon' the I Holy Land",which should be the coun- ; try of the Hebrews, but ever since the • close of the thirteenth century, when the last of;,the crusades failed,^Palestine has been in the 'hands of s Moslems, and to-day it is one of the 1 provinces of the Sultan of Turkey. Still the Jews cast longing eyes towards! the birthplace of their nationality, and I Mr Israel Zangwill, the well-known and ■ deservedly popular author, is at the head of a movement to call the wanderers home, after first finding a home for them. Probably most Christian people would be pleased to see the Jews once again tho predominant race in the Holy Land, but the difficulties in the way of the Hebrews re-colonising the country were, before tho war, almost insuperable. i In the first place there was the Turkish Government to deal with, which had set its face against it very sternly, and in the second place the population occupying it jyas far too numerous for any purchase, of 'the"old home at a price that -would '-bring Jewish repatriation within the range of probability—not to say possibility. Hopes of Palestine for the Hebrew.' were ■ abandoned, and tho .thoughts _.of _ those who'cdjssired to .unife^e'S'ace'sii&i a home of its own turned to a slice of[ territory in Northern Africa, called Cyrenaica, a part of the Turkish province of Tripoli. To this little-known piece of country a commission set out, like a modern edition of the one w-hi'' > brought back to Moses from the -brook Eschol a bunch of ; grapes that required: two men to carry. -But' the modern; commission; ■ brought back ;ino siichj souvenir, arid had no "land flowing; with milk and honey "picture to paint. ; Tin.. ,},'>vl's had an early connection with; Cyrenaica, and classical literature places it 2000 years ago as rich, pra-v perous, and populous. Rut the leader of the expedition stated that though the country was very attractive from its beauty, healthiness, pleasant climate-, and commanding position, the scarify of wator-^duo to the porous soil -would probably prevent it ever supporting a dense population. The whole plateau is a vast block of limestone, at least 3000 feet thick, which is "as j porous as a sieve." The leader's investigations were against the proba-1 bility of Cyrenaica ever having carried a dense population, and the water difficulty would be too much to surmount by any great number of colonists. So once more the hopes of the Jew for a national home were blasted.

In connection with Cyrenaica, it may be etated that in 320 B.C. Ptolemy I. established thoro Jewish military strongholds manned" by captives brought from tho Holy Land. Those garrisons enjoyed complete autonomy, and in 74 B.C. felt themselves sstrong enough to resist the occupation of the country by the Romans. They were not successful in their resistance, and when- conquered they disappeared from the. history of Cyrenaica, which is a 1 ' euphonious way of saying that they;' I were massacred. But several escapee? ' sought. protection among their Ber be j neighbours, whom they helped in their | long-continued struggle against Borne The leader of the expedition found traces of the Jewish colonies, cemeteries, rains of towns, and. Qreek and. Hebrew •; inscriptions—all interesting enough, no doubt; but. Byron's questions- still, .remain, unanswered:

"And where shall Ism-el lave her bleeding feet ? And when shall ZioiVs songs again seem sweet ?"

Just so. But there is boing carried on at the present moment a Avar the end of which may give n very compk'ti: answer to Byron's question.. Should the Allies' aim be gained, Germany will be beaten and her Turkish ally, will be driven out of Europe. As that allj holds Palestine as wholly her own, she will have to yield it up to the conquerors, and then, no doubt, will come the great day,for the Hebrews. It may libe safely said-that in the dividing:of ■•the spoil the Hebrews may confidently '■trust in Britain and France favouring. \he. Hebraic return to their native ; bind, Italy would have 710 reason „to oppose it, and as 'Russia's aim i«to oossess, Constantinople, her opposition in regard to Palestine would be mild indeed. So that, after all, tho calling home of tho' wanderers may not be so very far off. ■