LAND OF PALESTINE

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 136, 12 June 1930, Page 4

LAND OF PALESTINE

NEW ZEALANDER'S VISIT BRITAIN'S ADMINISTRATION (From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, 15tU April. Being greatly interested in tließalia'i Movement for' Universal Peace, in prison reform,.and in general social work, Mr. E. B. N. Dewing (Eerauera) took the opportunity of going into these matters in Australia and in Egypt, and he will continue to do so in the Mother Country. He was immensely impressgd with the fine work that the Adelaides Women Police are doing, and ho wished that the New Zealand authorities would lend a more sympathetic ear to this important question. It was explained to him that the Adelaide women police have wider powers than in other States, and hence were the. most efficient and effective force in Australia. At Port Said Mr. Dewing disembarked and visited Haifa, where he was the guest of Shogi Effendi, the head of the Baha'i movement and grandson of Sir Abdul Baha Abbag. Among a number of prominent members of this movement who were also guests was Lady Blomfield. Mr. Dewing was interested in the very fine prison run by the British in Acca. Mr. Phillips, the superintendent, believes in the-humane method of treating prisoners, and the inmates, who are mostly Arabs, are all taught a trade during the period of their detention. As a British Tommy said: "Believe me, it's an 'omo away from 'ome for 'em." They certainly seemed a'happy lot. "The British are doing a great deal for Palestine in the way of building fine roads, cleaning up tho towns, and widening the streets, " says the New Zealand traveller. "The friction between the Arabs and Jews at the present time is a burning question, and while I was in Haifa a Jew was caught by tho Customs endeavouring to smuggle in 150 rifles with ammunition. Tho general opinion was that it is a far more serious question than would appear on the surface. The reason is I that the Arabs, having sold their land to the Jews for what seemed to them a j fabulous sum, flock to the towns, where | they spend tho money, and then find themselves; with no alternative but to remain in the towns as unemployed and in poverty, or to go farther and farther out into the poor and desert lands. Their lot is, therefore, a hard one, and it seems impossible to regard the British Administration as being entirely blameless in this matter. j A FERTILE PLAIN. "It was interesting to note the difference between an Arab and a Jewish holding. The' Arab uses but primitive implements drawn by oxen, and the Jew does not scorn to use new-fangled ideas, such as a horse-drawn plough, made of iron. Tho result is that the plots of the Jews look fat and fertile and those of the Arabs poor and unproductive. The entire Plain of Megiddo or Esdrealon is farmed by Jews, and looking down upon it from the road to Tiberias it is stretched out beneath like a vast mosaic. As far as tho eye can see to the hills, there is not a tree, a fence, a hedge, or any boundary mark that divides the neat) little plots. All are the same width, but different lengths, never more than an acre in area, and it is the varied shades of green and brown, according | to the1 crops with which these plots j are sown, that form tho mosaic. Three > or four years ago this great plain wasj uncultivated and was a mass of Palestinian wild flowers for which this: country is famous at this time of' year." ■

Having'stayed seven-clays- at Haifa, Mr. Dewing visited Beirut, whore he was the guest of the Persian students at the magnificent American University. Beirut is a largo city the size of Auckland, and is bounded on one side by a bay that is remarkable for the richness of its Mediterranean blue. From one extremity of this bay starts a low range of hills that gradually rise until they terminate thirty or forty miles distant in" the peak of Mount Lebanon. He had the opportunity of being present at Persian Clubs ' Naurooz festivities. The Feast of Naurooz corresponds to our New Year, and its origin is lost in antiquity. The students recited and played Persian music, •and to conclude Baba Naurooz dressed something like our Father Christmas, entered to-Persian music a sort of dance in front of each guest, and presented him with a flower and a packet of raisins from &■ sack which ho carried. The thing that struck the New Zealander most was the intense, keenness of these students. It is not to be wondered at that the East is awakening with such men entering into its life. At Cairo Mr. Dewing was distressed to find that wherever he went tables were strewn with literature, but were entirely without leaflets on New Zealand. At one hotel in Cairo there was one wretched little- leaflet 'among a wealth of information "about other countries that could only have the effect of convincing people that New Zealand is not a very important place.