WORLD NEWS IN STORY AND PICTURE

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 35, 11 February 1939, Page 3 (Supplement)

WORLD NEWS IN STORY AND PICTURE

THE PALESTINE TROUBLE The situation in Palestine is admittedly one of the most serious which has troubled Great Britain in recent years. The crux of the whole matter ib that the question is npt confined to Si comparatively small area. Look at a map and you will find that Palestine is a very small country indeed. However, two grea; racial influences conflict thereArabs and Tews. That also means unfortunately, religion. And wliei. it comes to religion, we must remember. that Christianity , had its birth in Palestine.! Christians call it their Holy Land, with Jerusalem as the centre. But we must remember that the Jews and the Arabs also regard Jerusalem as, a Holy City of their faitji. So there we have three great religions with what one might almost call their focal point in one town.

Now, here is a point little realised by most people. Arabs and the people we know as Jews are of, the same race. Long before Christianity many Arabs adopted the Jewish faith. Perhaps I - should not refer to Arabs, but more to people of Semitic stock.

Christianity came, and with it a great cleavage among the races of Palestine. Later still, in the sixth century a Semetic Mohammed, proclaimed a ne-w religibh based upon the older ones, including Christianity.

By ARPAD SZIGETVARY.

I'lie majority of the Arab section of die Semitic race adopted his teachngs, which,, among other things,

■tated that Jesus Christ was a Great Man. .

So . there, around, about 550 A.D., wo have the origin, of a great religious dispute. Jew, Christian/ and Mohammedan, Which has never been settled in claim Jerusalem as their city, and have fought for : its ownership through several centuries.

We come now -to the present day. After the Great War a famous English politician, Lord Balfour, promised Palestine to the Jews as a new, and old, home for them. The Arabs re-, seated this. They maintained that it was' their land' long /before the split in the Semitic race occurred. That is to say, that the Arab half re,mained, whereas those who became Jews wandered farther afield.

There, roughly, is a resume of the ancient history of Palestine. From it you may read for yourselves what a difficult and most intricate position Great Britain is faced with.

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There is also the s ' much wider aspect of the great power of the Moslem religion, embracing as it does large portions of-Asia and Africa' and a email portion of Europe, as against the Jews, numerically smaller, spread all over the world. < '

It is a most important question, but fraught with eo many delicate matters that . I almost hesitate to tackle it. . It is,' however, a matter of {iresent day history which should be better understood.

Although numerically superior, the Moslems in the world, numbering .209,620,000: afe' compared with 16,140000 Jews, the people of Jewish faith control a great deal more money than the followers of Mohammed's teachings. Whereas the Jews are in the minority in' eyery country in which they have settled, we find that Moslems are , in . the majority in many countries. The extent of the Moslem religion is, Toughly, Egypt, Turkey, Palestine, Transjordan, Saudi-Arabia, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, a great | part of India, Malaya, the Nether-

lands Indies, the Philippines, North, East, West and Central Africa. As well as that, a large number of Chinese are Moslems. The Moslems of Europe are practically confined to the Balkans and Russia, although they have.two mosques, or.churches, in England, 4ne in London and one in Woking. There is - the danger in Palestine. The, conflict f'between .numbers and money: If the conference at present sitting in London .decides in favour of the- Palestinian Jews. Y(the majority of them newcomers); as against the native Arabs, there is the very grave danger x that tihe Arabs may appeal to the people who share their religion and thus make serious trouble, not only in British territories, such a* India and Malaya, Kenya Colony and bilt in areas under British influence which mean a great deal to Britain—that is Egypt, Transjordan and Iraq, as well as Palestine itself.

On the other hand, the Jews have great influence the world over and their side of the question must, therefore, be most carefully considered by Britain.

Taking all this into consideration, we must sympathise with Britain in her hour, of tribulation and pray that -the wisdom she has displayed in so-many religious and racial conflicts may once again find a peaceful solution of|a problem-fraught with much dangec.