JEWISH PROBLEM IN PALESTINE

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 252, 21 July 1936, Page 9

JEWISH PROBLEM IN PALESTINE

Influx of Nazi Victims Dominion Special Service. Auckland, July 20. A distinguished prelate of the Anglican Church, Rt. Rev. Dr. G. F. Graham Brown, Bishop in Jerusalem, arrived from Australia by the Niagara. He is reporting to members of the Church of England in Australia and New Zealand on the work that is being done in Palestine, and while in Australia attended the Bishop Broughton centenary celebrations. He will spend about a month in the Dominion. A son of a missionary of the China Inland Mission Bishop Graham Brown, who was born at Lan-Choo, China, has had a notable career. He was educated ait Cambridge University, and served during the Great War as an officer with the King’s Own Scottish Borderers, rising to the rank of captain. After a period as master at Monkton Combe School he was ordained in 1922, and became chaplain and later principal of Wycliffe Hall, one of the theological colleges at Oxford. He was also lecturer at Wadham College, Oxford, from 1923 to 1925. As principal of Wycliffe Hall he conceived the idea of taking students' to spend their third term in alternate years in Palestine, and so obtained an intimate knowledge of his future see. The visit of the party in 1929 was marked by the disastrous riots, during which the principal and his students rendered great assistance to the authorities. For his work in this connection Dr. Graham Brown was awarded the 0.8. E. He was consecrated Bishop of Jerusalem in 1932, and he is also sub-prelate of the Order 1 of St John of Jerusalem.

The vast extent of his responsibilities is indicated by the fact that his pastoral care extends over Christians belonging to the Anglican Church iu Palestine, Syria. Transjordania, Cyprus, and part of Asia Minor; spiritual supervision over Anglican congregations in Irak; mission work among Jews and Moslems, and the maintenance of relations and co-operation with other Christian churches in Jerusalem. The see is under six national administrations, and contains 8.000.000 people speaking six main and 60 subsidiary languages. The maintenance of schools and hospitals are other sides of the work.

Although unwilling to express an opinion as to the future of Palestine or the recent troubles there, Dr. Graham Brown gave an indication of the immense importance of the Jewish question. The Jewish population was now nearly twice what it was four years ago, he said, and Jews were entering the country at the rate of 70,000 a year. The rise of the Nazis in Germany had had a direct influence, and in the last two years the majority of the immigrants were from that country. This influence had brought to the country a large proportion of “neutral Jews,” inspired neither by the earlier religious motives nor by Zionist Ideology, but by prosaic necessities and lack of anywhere else to go. This had resulted in an intensification of the fort by the Palestinian Jewish leaders to inculcate Hebrew cultural conceptions in order to combat the danger of the ideals being diluted by an influx of “Zionistically neutral Jews.” Another result up to the time of the troubles in April had been that the wealth and diligence of the German Jews had greatly ameliorated the economic conditions. causing yet another type of Jewish immigration inspired only oy the country’s reputed prosperity. One of the major tasks being carried out in the bishop’s see is the moving of Assyrians from Irak to land promised by the French in Syria, largely owing to the devoted work of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Through his mission of help the work was proceeding steadily, he said. It was an attempt to effect under the auspices of the League of Nations a final solution of the Assyrian problem, and had a strong religious and humanitarian interest. The project is estimated to cost £1,146,000 for land reclamation and settlement, or about £l3/7/- a head.