THE HOLY LAND

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIX, Issue 251, 22 October 1915, Page 7

THE HOLY LAND

RETURN OF THE JEWS

PREPARING THE WAY

In the course of a letter written from No." 1 Stationary Hospital at Port Said, Secant A. Prentice says: "I have had some very interesting conversations with people herewith reference to the effect of the war so far as -Biblical prophecy is concerned, particularly one the other night with the local agent of the Bible bocietv He told me that every year for'some time past—u> to the time of the war, of course-he has made Journeys away past Jerusalem across parts of Arabki, and through the Holv'Land Kenernlly. He stated that from 'his own observations ot what he hns .-sen in the Knst and what is transpiring now, he is nrm'y persuaded that the time tor the re-, turn of the Jews to their own land is corning. Tt seems tliat for some time past the big Jews of America Iwve been purchasing large areas ot land in and around Jerusalem, and1 letting them out in'small, allotments to their poorer brethren. Thus there has been n large influx of Jews mto the Holy Land, am* while, of course, the var has stopped this, still the fact remains that the Jews are going back. At the present time there is "in hand a huge system of irrigation which it is anticipated will restore the barren desert ot tonlay to the t.tate of things which prevailed O1'T?om what he told me T gathered that tilings before the war in 1 alestine A.sia Elinor, and in ether parts where the Turk held full sway, were in a most deplorable- condition, - the Government and administration bein* most corrupt. The slave trade was, ami still is, a flourishing industry in the further-back towns, and men and women can be bought in the slave market for about £8. ihe peoolc- oi the historical towns cyst luVplv oil what they can extort froni the* tourists and pilgrims. About* IOC) 000 people annually visit Mecca, and my informant told me that many of them never return. "It seems hard to realise that we iir- only IB hours from Jerusalem here, and of course we are all hopin" chat we will have an opportunity of^eing tin- old olaeos, familiar from our earliest days." (