THE ROUT IN PALESTINE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 13967, 28 September 1918, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE ROUT IN PALESTINE.

FROM SAMARIA TO GALILEE.

BY THE REV. C. 11. LAWS, B.A.

Palestine is a war-worn land. From the dawn of history it lias known the conflict of arms. Ancient conquerors have left their scars upon its mountains and plains. In tho far past Egypt and Assyria in turn compelled its kinglets to submission; in tho mid-distances Moslems and Crusaders swept along its roads to picturesque campaigns; tho dust of Napoloon's invasion is scarcely yet laid. But in all the age-long story it is difficult to find an exploit equal in Its dramatic swift, ness and complete success to the great rout by which Sir Edmund Allenby has loosed the land from its long slavery. "Tho East only awaits a man," said Bonaparte, and it seems, so far as the Holy Land is concerned, as though the man of destiny had come. Tho defence of the Turk, from Beersheba to Nazareth, has been utterly broken, all the roads and cities are in our hands, the enemy is scurrying down the defiles of Samaria to the fords of the Jordan that are closed against him, and the land is free. It is a most brilliant stroke of high military genius. Every bazaar from Constantinople to Calcutta will ring with the news. The prestige of British arms stands at its zenith in tho East.

Meadow and Valley. The parts in which our troops are now operating are by far the most beautiful in Palestine. Judea, where last year's campaign achievod the liberation of Jerusalem, is a stony' upland. There are' long vistas from its summits, but the land itself is dour and infertile. Wherever man relaxes his' industry tho encroaching wilderness invades it. But as the traveller rides northward along the high back of the country he becomes slowly conscious of a change. Tho horizontal limestone strata that create the Judean plateau begin to dip, and ho enters a land where tho slopes grow less precipitous and the hillsides are no longer sheathed in stony armour. Tho country opens ou(j, inviting glens come up from the plain of Sharon, fertile levels lie in basins among the hills, the musio of running water is frequent, the eye sweeps over great fields of barley and wheat, of lentils and beans, of garlic and onions, flocks of sheep and goats graze upon the hills, and the shepherds' cries carry far from height to height. This is Samaria, the land of the open door and of the open heart. She was gay and fascinating, Up the easy ascents "from the plain the outer world crept and made her pliant to temptation, and through the open doors came her enemies, bo that, while Judah lay long inviolate, Samaria was at the mercy of every strong foe. From the Hill of Shoshem. Her first capital was Shcchem, tho Nablus which our troops have captured. It lies in a rich vale between Ebal and Gerizim, embosomed in plantations cf olives and figs and pomegranates, and has won the name of "The Little Damascus." The story of its origin is lost, but Abram built an altar there, and within a few stones' throw is Jacob's Well and Joseph's tomb. " Beyond, some 17 miles, lies the city of Samaria, which Omri made his capital, finding Shechera too open to ready attack. It is built upon an isolated hill, lying like an upturned basin amidst a broad valley, and in ancient warfare was well-nigh impregnable. Sargon of Assyria, Alexander the Great, Ptolemy Lagi, and John Hyrcanus each in turn invested the little hill rising from 'the green vale, and the first-named took three years to accomplish its subjection. Here Ahab and Jezebel kept their evil court, and the proud idolatress watched from its wall the shining Mediterranean upon which sailed her father's fleets. At yonder gateway the dogs licked Ahab's blood, and amid those smiling fields Jezebel slew the prophets of Jehovah; somewhere near Jehu brought equal vengeance upon the priests of Baal and the family of the king; hero, too, Herod murdered Mariamno. Fair is the scene to-day when the light airs come over the vine-clad hills— blood mingles with the sunshine, and tho cries of dying men are brought upon the breeze.

Further north the road • comes over a high spur into the valley of Dothan, whence Joseph was sold into Egypt, and the traveller finds the hills of Samaria falling towards a great, far-reaching plain, into which tho valley debouches. At its entranco lies Jenin, now occupied by our troops, beside its famous, gushing spring— Engannim of Joshua's timo. From tho housetops of Jenin tho plain of Esdraolon can be seen stretching for some twenty miles to tho hills of Galileo, and yonder, on their slopes, while in tho cleatEastern sunlight, stand out the houses of Nazareth, a city on an Kill that cannot be hid.

The Plain of Esdraelon. The plain- of 'Esdraelon is one of the most interesting features of the Holy Land. 1:1 some mighty cataclysm, porhaps the same as that which tore the land in two and dug tlio deep trench of the Jordan Valley, the mountainous backbone of the country was dislocated by a huge geological fault in Which the land sank over a thousand feet, and formed a broad, level expanse which sweeps from the sea at the foot of Carmel to tho Jordan at Beisan. It is traversed by immemorial roads and by the railway from Haifa to Damascus. The plain is splashed with the carnage of a thousand fights. Here Deborah met Sisera and swept him before her in a froiizy of defeat; here, too, Gideon with his handful of braves overthrew tho hosts of Midian. On Gilboa, near by, the Philistines, who had accomplished the same turning movement that has now discomfited tho Turk, shattered the Israelites and Saul, their king, overmastered with shame, fell upon his sword, and, at the Pass of Megiddo, by which} our cavalry rode from Sharon into the Great Plain, Josiah sought to intercept Pharaoh Necho as he marohed to attack Assyria, and for his temerity lost his army and his life. The Romans garrisoned the passes that command the plain, the Crusaders were driven across it to their last defeat, and Napoleon passed over it to the fatal siege of Acre. And now the cries of British and Indian cavalry mingle with the clamours of ancient warfare, and our great, indisputable victory adds a new and brilliant page to tho story of tho historic plain. It is impossible yet to forecast the ultimate effect of Sir Edmund- Allonby's triumph. That Palestine v is ours is beyond question. It may be that ere this there is not an uncaptured Turk on the west of Jordan. The remainder of Galilee can be occupied when wo will. But there is a goal beyond. The great City of Damascus lies northwards at the foot of the Lebanon Ranges. Its capture would shatter the Turkish power in Syria as it was destroyed in Mesopotamia by the caplure of Bagdad. There is no doubt that already General Allenby's eyes are looking in that direction. He has begun tho campaign early, and before Christmas his troops may be in Damascus and far beyond.