“PALESTINE AWAKES”

Evening Star, Issue 22351, 29 May 1936, Page 14

“PALESTINE AWAKES”

REBIRTH OF A NATION DR MLLS'S ILLUMINATING ADDRESS A forceful and_ illuminating lecture on modern Palestine was delivered by Dr C. J. Rolls, Home director for Australia_ and New Zealand of the Sudan Interior Mission. The Town Hall Concert Chamber was crowded, and Dr Rolls was heard with close interest. The lecture was vividly illustrated with coloured slides. The Rev. T. Miller introduced the speaker. “We are hero to-night,” said Dr Rolls in his opening remarks, “ to consider. what 1 believe to be a land of destiny and a people who form the pulse of national history.” The Jews, he said, constituted the only community in the world with a continuous life history lasting 4,000 years. Far back beyond the days of Aryan prestige, when imperious Persia marched to conquest, before Greece brought forth-her brilliant philosophers, and'bcfore Rome even toddled in rural infancy. Mount Moriah had witnessed the dignified faith of Abraham, and Sinai had reverberated with the decalogue of Moses. During all the outrages against Israel there had been rifts of blue in the dark storm clouds and the disturbances of the past had been more or less circumscribed, but the psychosis of the Great War precipitated a grave change in national sentiment that had proved most perilous to Jewish security. But, continued Dr Rolls, after many trials and tribulations the Jewish people were now being restored to the country which was theirs by right. Out of chaos and from “ amid the debris of civilisation’s ruins,” the full emancipation of Israel and Palestine was taking place. A great deal of the credit had to be given to Dr Chiam Weizmann, a 1 Jewish scientist, who gave invaluable - assistance to Great Britain during the conflict of 1914-18. It was n© who discovered a.process for making acetone, required for the manufacture of cordite, from maize and corn, at a time when Britain’s supply was seriously hampered by the sinking of ships bringing the necessary materals into the country. As a reward for his discovery, Dr Weizmann was offered a peerage, a gift of £IOO,OOO, and a subs^ an tial pension fur life, but he refused these, making the simple request that something should be done for my people. 3 He then declared his aspirations and those of Jewry, to regather in th© land their nation .had made universally famous. Hr Vveizmami soon won over to his cause Lord Balfour, who became a champion of the cause—the very on© whose kern, cool, sceptical nnna sesmcvl foreign to enthusiasm in suet, a project, became radiant iu zeal and mighty in action. The result was ?hat in Britain received from the League of Nations a mandate over Palestine.

'lhe task of bringing the Jews back to Palestine was a difficult one, continued the speaker, and the mockers were asking whether a people inexperienced in agriculture could possibly make a success for h rural country like Palestine. -.The taunts, however, were stereotyped, and the opposers were forgetful of the tremendous power f>f consecrated service and the urging fortes of the world to come.

I)r Rolls spoke briefly of.the trouble between the Arabs and the dews, expressing the opinion that the former had been definitely encouraged in their demands for the restriction of Jewish rights in Palestine. No' one, however, could gainsay the fact that, in a choice between Arabs and Jews, the latter would bo most reliable in friendship and fidelity to Britain, with unrelated interests, and would defend their country with a chivalry unexcelled and a tenacity that could only be staunched by death. The propaganda that was spreading among the Arabs, warning them of the dangers that would result from an influx of the J ews, had already been overwhelmingly disproved and exposed as an unmitigated falsehood. Palestine to-day was a new country. The land was being tilled, Haifa was the coming port of the Mediterranean, thousands of new buildings and houses were being erected, and there were over 500 new industries. There were 80,000 students in the Jewish schools, and.the children were going back so fast that it was necessary to teach them in tents because of lack of better accommodation, The date and orange farms were fast becoming of primary importance, and the oil resources of the country were being worked as never before. The people and the land had again become the focal point ol national industry and the vital centre lending colour to Tvorld events.