The New Palestine,

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16211, 14 May 1918, Page 6

The New Palestine,

The Zionist Commission, under the leadership of Dr. Weizmann, presidont of tho English Zionist Federation, which recently arrived in Jerusalem, has a great programme of work before it. It has beon authorised by tho Imperial Government to investigate tH© present conditions of the Jewish colonies in Palestine, and among its objects I in making its investigation will be tho repatriation of the Jews whom the Turks drove out of the country, tho organisation of relief work, the repair of the havoc inflicted on tho Jewish, colonies by the enemy, and the re-open-ing of Jewish institutions. The hardships suffered by tho Jews in Palestine during th© war havo to a large extent escaped the notice of the outside world, hut they havo been very groat. Before the war the forty-eight Jewish colonies were prospering, they wore exporting to Europe largo and increasing quantities of wino3, citrus fruits, and grain, and between 1904 and 1914 their

exports increased 200 per cent. All thi9 caine to a sudden end with the outbreak of war. Not only did the colonistß lose their market, hut the Turks cut down for military purposes all the best of the million trees the Jews had planted, and seized the pipe lines of the irrigation systems, thereby causing many of the orango groves to be destroyed by drought. The Jews living in the seaports of Palestine were deportod wholesale as the British advanced up the country; ton thousand being expelled from Jaffa alone. In Jerusalem itself the Jewish population by the time th 6 British occupied the city, had been reduced, Dr. Weizraann has, stated, by starvation, typhus, and expulsion, to one-third of its pre-war strength. There could n<st, thereforo, havo been 20,000 Jews left in the city, and these were in a dreadful state of destitution, for the funds of tho American Jewish Relief Committee, ■fchich had been doing admirable work for the greater part- of the war, had been exhausted for three months. Obviously before tho Zionist organisation can take in hand the task for which it was established, much must be done for the Jews already in Palestine, and those who, driven out of it by the Turks, are now returning thither. This will be tho first care of the Commission, which is composed of leading British, American, and Russian Jews. Tho question of money will present no difficulties, at least for this preliminary duty, for the Zionists of Britain and the United States are raising a fund of £200,000 in each country, and the Russian Zionists are said to have imposed on themselves an income-tax to meet their share of the cost. But the Commission is also looking to the future—to tho re-establish-ment of tho Jewish state in Palestine. To this end it has taken with it experts in city-planning, sanitation, road-build-ing, agriculture, and education. It is accompanied by a party of doctors and nurses, who will establish a hospital in Jerusalem, and probably dispensaries in other towns. The Anglo-Palestine Bank, described as tho centre of Jew-

ish enterprise in Palestine, has already been re-opened, aftor being closed for som 0 three years. The schools to bo erected will include vocational and agricultural institutions, and the new scheme of education in Palestine is to bo crowned by the building in Jerusalem of a great Jewish university. It is a proof of the confidence felt by Jews all over the world in the eventual complete triumph of British arms that they should take in hand the groundwork of their great enterprise while our troops are still fighting tho enemy on tho banks of the Jordan.

We have frequently explained the process by which trades unions get saddled with extremist resolutions which tho sensible rank and filo would bo the first to repudiate. Theso resolutions are drafted by tho paid officials who think it necessary to do something from timo to time to show that they are alive; tho extremist members attend the meeting, but tho more sensible and moderate members of the union stay away on the ground that they don't want to be "mixed up with such things," and so tho resolutions are carried. As- far as the outside public are concerned the whole union is held responsible for these resolutions although, as we have said, they usually represent the views of only a small but interested and active minoritv. i

It is little short of calamitous that trades union officials and leaders in New Zealand are men of limited reading and education, and very mediocre ability. They rely chiefly upon a cer.tain facility of confident and volublo

speech commonly known as "the gift of the gab." In this respect the English. trades unionists are far more fortunate. Their leaders are men of real able to take a prominent part in public affairs as Ministers of the Crown, and doing no discredit to the office. Such men are Mr Henderson, ■Mr Barnes, Mr Bruce. Their viewc are always stated with moderation, and even if one differs from them ono is bound to listen to them with respect. No English labour loader would ever allow a trade union to be identified with such a farrago of nonsense as that emitted by the 'l'imaru branch of tho j Amalgamated Society of Railway Ser- | vants. Wo do not complain of that I body calling on Mr Massey to deal with tlje cost oi living problem, although we think he and the Government have done all that is possible to be. done under the circumstances. Not one of the persons who urge the Government to do more in this direction is ready with any con ore to proposals of a practical nature. "Where. w e think the Timaru railwaymen showed their ignorance was in accusing Sir Joseph Ward of "endeavouring to bleed the Imperial Government by asking them to pay cash for frozen mutton lying in New Zealand refrigerating chambers which would only benefit the big men." This, they add, •'constitutes a scandal, emanating from a Minister who calls himself a patriot/' Tinally it i s described as "getting from the Homo Government four million sterling for the benefit of a few."

Now, what arc the facts P The Homo Government, through the New Zealand Government, havo commandeered the frozen meat of the Dominion at a price considerably less than it would havo fetched in an unrestricted market. That is quite right and proper—it is a course which we advocated at the very outset of the war. Owin 2 to the lack of shipping, huge quantities of this meat are kept in New Zealand, and the freezing companies havo had to mako large additions to cold storage to accommodate it. Tho meat is the property of the Imperial Government but would not, under ordinary circumstanccs, be paid for until shipped. This means that not only tlio freezing comr panics but tho farmers are being kopt out of their money. Tho freezing companies and tho banks between them have endeavoured to tide over the difficulty by making advances to tho farmers. If they had not done this, the farmers would not have been able to pay wages to their men, or tho bills of thoir tradesmen, and so far from only a few being affectcd nearly every | worker in the Dominion would have found himsolf confronted not only with I -high cost of living but stoppago of wages. Obviously these advances, however, mean a great strain on tho resources of the banks and other institutions, particularly in view of tho requirements of the War Loan, and the strain might easily bo prolonged to tho breaking-point. In asking tho Homo Government to pay for tho meat which is their property, and the transport of which they have themselves under-' taken, Sir Joseph Ward is acting the part of a true patriot, as well as with ordinary business prudence.