ANGLICAN LEADER

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 22, 25 July 1936, Page 11

ANGLICAN LEADER

BISHOP IN JERUSALEM

VISIT TO WELLINGTON

CARE OF HUGE AREA

A distinguished prelate of the Church of England, the Rt. Rev. Dr. G. F. Graham-Brown, Bishop in Jerusalem, arrived in Wellington today; During his short stay here lie will attend the consecration of the new Bishop of Wellington, and will be the preacher at the service at St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral tomorrow evening. •

The pastoral care of the Bishop extends over Christians belonging to the Anglican Communion in "Palestine, Syria, Trans-Jordan, Cyprus, and such part of Asia Minor as is not assigned to the Bishop oi Gibraltar," and, at.the request of the Archbishop of Canterbury, he exercises spiritual supervision also over the Anglican congregations in Irak; in addition, the Bishop undertakes the establishment and maintenance of mission work among the Jews and Moslems in Bible lands, and "the maintenance of relations of Christian charity with the other Christian churches represented in Jerusalem, with a view to cooperation on Catholic principles and to the promotion of Christian unity."

The area covered by these terms is some 200,000 square miles, and the populations embraced reach perhaps a total of seven or eight million souls; i but it is of more practical importance' to realise that the citizens of six I separate national administrations are included, that six main languages and nearly sixty subsidiary languages are in use, and that the cultural levels range from wattle-and-mud hut dwellers to frequenters of luxury hotels. . In an interview today, Dr. GrahamBrown gave some interesting information concerning the trend of events in Palestine. He emphasised that despite, the number of Jews coming to Palestine, of the whole Jewish population of the world only 3 per cent, is in Palestine. POSITIOif IN PALESTINE. He said that through the outbreak of hostilities between Italy and Abyssinia there had been a weakening of confidence in Palestine's prosperity, but prompt measures by the Government prevented a financial crisis. At present there was an accumulated surplus of £6,000,000. "The Jews claim that since 1920 they have brought into the country £100,000,000," Dr. GrahamBrown said. "The in/lux of Jews has resulted in a large increase in building. There has been an intensification :of effort by Palestinian Jewish leadership. This has taken the form of inculcating Hebrew cultural conceptions to'combat the real danger of dilution of ideals owing to the immigration of Jews from Germany who are Zionistically neutral." There were approximately 360,000 Jews in Palestine, of whom 70,000 were on the land, said Dr. Graham-Brown. They lived in 187 settlements, the remainder being in the four large centres. Iff Jerusalem 65 per cent, of the population was Jewish. The city of Tel Aviv was the most striking instance, of Jewish settlement. Where in 1914 there could be seen nothing but sand dunes, today there was a city of 110,000 people, 99 per cent, of whom were Jews. "It is the one Jewish city in the worid," Dr. Graham-Brown said. NEUTRALITY PLEA. Referring to the plea of Dr. Magnes, now president of the University of Jerusalem, for the neutrality of Palestine in particular, and for the exemption of the country from the application of sanctions, the Bishop said that Dr. Magnes had pleaded that Palestine should not be made into a military, naval, or air force base, and that it should be kept free from participation in international conflicts. Palestine was the Holy Land of three great religions, and it should be kept free. 11 any country should feel itself particularly responsible for spreading peace in the world that country was Palestine;

Dr. Graham-Brown has had a notable career. He was educated at Cambridge University, and served in the Great War. After a period as master at Monkton Combe School, he was ordained in 1922 and became chaplain, and in 1925 principal of Wycliffe Hall, one of the theological colleges at Oxford. He was also a lecturer at Wadham College, Oxford, from 1923 to 1925. As principal of Wycliffe Hall, he conceived the idea of taking students to spend the third term in alternate years in Palestine, and so obtained an intimate knowledge of his future see. Dr. Graham-Brown was consecrated Bishop in- Jerusalem in 1932, and he is also Sub-Prelate of the Order of St.. John of Jerusalem.