THE HOLY LAND

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 68, 18 September 1917, Page 2

THE HOLY LAND

WHAT WILL BE ITS FUTURE?

(By Dr. Gaster, in London Pall Mall

Gazette.)

[Dr. Gaster is the Chief Rabbi of the Sepharclic Communities in England, and is a distinguished authority on Biblical lore, and on the law and literature of the_ East generally. The founder of Zionism in England, Dr. Gaster. has continued to take a leading part in its evolution, and has been thrice the vice-president of the Zionist Congress.]

We Zionists have often had it said to us that Palestine should be given to the Jews; that, however, is very far from my desire, {or without the machinery of Government^ and without holding a preponderance' of population, sucli a gift would be but a burden, and would be productive of nothing but" inter-racial strife and national disappointment. What I desire to see, and hope that some day I shall see, is Palestine under the political control of Great Britain, and of ■Great Britain alono. The form of suzerainty is immaterial. Whether the overj'lordship be such as that which prevails in Egypt, or Cyprus, or in any other of Britain's protected States, does not concern me. It is the substance of progress I seek, not the shadow of a name. It miist be bonio in mind that no condominium of Powers, no dual control, would be a possible alternative. For Palestine to be prosperous the firm and just control of one Power, and one only, is essential. ' THE PROPOSED CONSTITUTION. • Existing nationalities would have to be acknowledged, their interests safeguarded, and the Turkish system of groups continued. Thus theTe would be in Palestine three nations: a Mohammedan nation, a Christian nation, and a Jewish nation, the sphere of each being determined by the supreme Power. To each nation would be given the power of independent internal administration, and the control of all matters concerning education and charity, with, of course, the power of taxation. Each language, again, would be recognised as official and legal.

The Moslem element in Syria has been stationary since the Crusades, and the Turkish Government has not contributed to build tip the ruins of the desolated land. But, at the same time, I should like to say a- good word for the Turk; for the Jews have had nothing of which to complain. They have not been, singled out for persecution, or subjected to any special laws, or forced to live in pales of settlement; and their feeling is not one oE unkindiiess. They, with the rest of the peoples of the Ottoman Empire; have had only to deplore the inertness of the Government and the hindrance it has placed in the war of development; and all this has ruined the Turk more than it has the Jew. When the change of Government comas, it is to Great Britain alone-that the Jews will look to turn the wasted home of their fathers into a land again flowing with milk and honey, and to give the inhabitants of the Holy Land that Pax Britannica which is the cue essential if Palestine is to become' the spiritual centre of Jewry and the home of the homeless Jew. A JEWISH CHAPTER. Jews have no political schemes of conquest, though, once established in Palestine, they would constitute a stout barrier to any threat from the North to the British Power in Egypt. It would, in fact, be as much a question of selfdefence as one of loyalty to those who had given the Jews the.■. possibility of settlement in the Holy Land. Wo contemplate a charter, granted" by the Sovereign Power to the Jews, a charter that will not impinge upon the acquired rights, of the actual inhabitants, but will giv,o the Jews a. privileged position; the right of pre-emption and purchase of Crown lands and railways, and facilities for.all manner of industrial development. ' Free ingress of immigrants, ■ who will flock to the Holy Land, will be granted, and the right to regulate the influx vested in the Jews themselves. The revolution in Eussia has changed to a certain extent the aspect of' the immigration question, and has surely changed it for the better. ' For the millions of Jews in Russia will no longer feel the pressure driving them to emigration, and the stream from there will cease to flow. The position of the Polish Jew, however, still presents a problem ior which no solution has been found, and a great influx from that part of the world is not unlikely. THE HOPE OF THE ZIONIST.

What the Jews want is not the power to rule, but the feeling that they are being governed by a just and fair Administration, equitable, tolerant, and sympathetic; which, moreover, understands the possibilities of their future. Palestine to the Jews is not like a Gentile colony. Jews will not go there to enrich themselves. They will go to find contentment and peace of mind, freedom from oppression, so that, unhampered, a spiritual State may rise there to become a centre of light to themselves and to all the peoples. A Jewish Palestine would prove a link between the cultures .of East and West, the high, road where all could meet, in peaceful competition, to serve the highest aims of mankind.