ANGLICAN LEADER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22476, 21 July 1936, Page 11

ANGLICAN LEADER

BISHOP IN JERUSALEM VISIT TO DOMINION CONDITIONS IN PALESTINE THE JEWISH QUESTION A distinguished prelate of the Anglican Church, the lit. Rev. Dr. G. F. Graham Brown, Bishop iii Jerusalem, arrived from Aiistralia by the Niagara yesterday. He is reporting to members of the Church of England in Australia and New Zealand, on tho work that is being done in Palestine, and while in Australia attended the Bishop Broughton centenary celebrations. He will spend about a month in the Dominion. The son of a missionary of the China Inland Mission, Dr. Graham Brown, who was born at Lan-choo, China, has had a notable career. He was educated at Cambridge University, and served during the Great War as an officer with the King's Own Scottish Borderers, rising to the rank of captain. After a period as master at Monkton Combe School lie was ordained in 1922 and became chaplain, and in 1925 principal, of Wycliffc Hall, one of the theological colleges at Oxford. He was also a lecturer at Wad ham College. Oxford, from 1923 to 1925.

Extensive Responsibilities As principal of Wycliffe Hall he conceived the idea of taking students to spend the third term in alternate years in Palestine, and rib obtained an intimate knowledge of his future see. The visit of the party in 1929 was marked by tho disastrous riots, during which the principal and his students rendered great assistance to the authorities. For his work in this connection Dr. Graham Brown was awarded the 0.8. E. Dr. Graham Brown was consecrated Bishop in Jerusalem in 1932, and he is also Sub-prelate of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. The vast extent of his responsibilities is indicated by the fact that his pastoral care extends over Christians belonging to the Anglican Church in Palestine, Syria, Transjordania, Cyprus and part of Asia Minor, spiritual supervision over the Anglican congregations in Irak, mission work among Jews and Moslems, and the maintenance of relations and co-operation with the other Christian Churches in Jerusalem. The see is under six national administrations, and contains 8,000.000 people, speaking six main and 60 subsidiary languages. The maintenance of schools and hospitals is another side of the work. Jewish Immigration

Although unwilling to express an opinion as to the future of Palestine or the recent troubles there, Dr. Graham Brown gave an indication of the immense importance of the Jewish question. The Jewish population was now nearly twice what it was focr years ago, he said, and Jews were entering the country at the rate of 70,000 a year. Jews now comprised from a quarter to a third of the population. The rise of the Nazis in Germany had had a direct influence, and in the last two years the majority of the immigrants were from that country. This influence had brought to the country a large proportion of "neutral Jews," inspired neither by the earlier religious motires nor by Zionist ideology, but by prosaic necessities and lack of anywhere else to go.

This had resulted in an intensifica tion of effort by Palestinian Jewish leaders to inculcate Hebrew cultural conceptions, in order to combat the danger of ideals being diluted by the influx of "zionistically neutral Jews.' 1 Another result, up to the time of the troubles in April, had been that the wealth and diligence of the German Jews had greatly ameliorated economic conditions, causing yet another type of Jewish immigration, inspired only by the country's reputed prosperity. One of the major tasks being carried out in the Bishop's see is the moving of the Assyrians from Irak to tho land promised by the French in Syria. Largely owing to the devoted ■work of the Archbishop of Canterbury through his mission of help, the work was proceeding steadily, Dr. Graham Brown said. It was an attempt to effect under the auspices of the League of Nations a final solution of the Assyrian problem, and had a strong religious and humanitarian interest. The project is estimated to cost £1,146,000 for land reclamation and settlement, or about £l3 7$ a head.