EXPERIENCES IN PALESTINE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22366, 13 September 1934, Page 11

EXPERIENCES IN PALESTINE

MISSIONARY LETTERS Letters written last June have been received in Dunedin by helpers and friends from Mr and Mrs Shelley, who for the last 20 years have been Protestant missionaries in Jerusalem. THE POLITICAL SITUATION. Mr Shelley writes: “The avalanche of affairs and the floods of events which crash down upon us, almost stun one. at times, and make one anxious to get away and ask the question: What does it all mean, and to what is it all leading? In Palestine where all restraint from hostile authorities, as in other lands does not exist, the tendency to run riot can hardly be resisted, and occasionally extremists in Jewry itself break out in jealous competition for the pride of place. , let amidst all these exhibitions of worldlmess it must be acknowledged that all these outbursts of pride and commercial efficiency bringing capital into the country, which must somehow be absorbed into Jewish schemes and projects, are just the ingredients of a prosperity which will develop until the jealousy of the .northern nations will be aroused. Egypt is being linked up, and it is possible to motor from Cairo to Petra in two days, and at Easter more than 100 visitors from Egypt were staying at Petra. These movements are not overlooked by our intelligence folk, and it is rumoured that the spare machinery used in making the harbour at Haifa is being quietly transferred to Akaba. COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENTS. «You have heard of the cloudburst swamping Tiberias again. This was far more serious than the last, four years ago. The place was nearly swept into the sea, and many were drowned. The hot sun and dank moisture arising from broken cesspits and drains many centuries old. marked the spot for days as one to be avoided. The Jews there have gradually been building up the hill away from the sea, so it was the Arab folk who suffered most, and no doubt the old cemeteries. loosely covered, broke up. The city 'is being completely filled in with good commercial buildings. The churches have been able to let loose some of their hidden riches, and put up impressive offices upon the vacant spots which have held up development for years, and the incoming German Jews readily take them over. Many Hebrew Christians, hardly founded yet upon the Ford, have been lost in the effort to share in the boom which reigns in all our cities just now. Partly through being crowded out by high rents and partly because of the extreme - heat which grips the city of Tel Aviv for many months of the year, numerous families have hud to leave the town, It will only be a matter of a few years and the whole of the shore towards Haifa will be covered by Jewish activities. “The Italian propaganda continues. Jewish boys can go to Milan University freely with all expenses paid, and lately an Italian professor was offered to the Jewish University to teach Italian, but was refused owing to lack of funds; but that did not stop Mussolini, for he sent an Italian Jew as professor at no cost to the university, and an Italian chair is now upon the staff. I suppose there are thousands of Roman Catholics in old England who would welcome the handing over of the mandate to the Vatican, and shall we see it done? “Many groups are competing all over Palestine, each hoping to uncover some remarkable treasure with a definite bearing upon the past. German, Dutch, French, American, British, Swedish, and, in some cases, joint undertakings are digging into the rocks and mountains north, south, east, and west. Down south below the Dead Sea Solomon’s copper mines have been discovered, and a mountain of iron ore has offered its chntribution of treasures in the hills, and even in the Dead Sea there are traces of alluvial gold which has been swept down from the gorges near Engcdi. “Meanwhile, down near Gaza a wonderful hill of almost pure sulphur has been discovered, and this is being worked and owned by the British, and whilst the world’s supply of sulphur is very, short of requirements a good return iq .assured.

One has been occupied lately in watching how the whole laud is being opened up. Bus transport penetrates into every crevice, and the camel and donkey traffic seems doomed. Man is changing the face of the land, and even the wandering Bedouin, whose ancestors have ruled and scraped a precarious living almost since the invasion of the Israelites, will, find his fastnesses invaded and the inevitable car will sweep past him leaving him as hopeless as ever. In fact, every hill and valley except those in the actual wilderness will soon echo the motor horn and the roar of transport.” UR OF THE CHALDEES.

Mrs Shelley sent the following letter from Bagdad:—“l am writing from the banks of the great and noble river Tigris, just close to the place where that great river, the Euphrates, runs closest to it. In the grey dawn of Wednesday last, as we thundered over this last-named river in the motor transport, I assure you we felt that thrill which passes over one when one finds oneself in the Promised Land. From Damascus to Bagdad is a 27'hours’ journey, and from Jerusalem to Damascus covers a distance of 200 miles from gate to gate. Next day in the early morning we started for Ur of the Chaldees, passing Babydon on the way, and, filling up with petrol at Hillah, which village is built from Babylon bricks. We reached Ur, having travelled 250 miles over a sun-blistered plain, intersected everywhere with a system of canals and one-time waterways; but in by far the majority of instances now filled up with the silt of the ages, for since the time of the Grecian Empire no attempt has been made to cope with the situation. We slept that night in a ‘rest shanty’ in the railway station. Of all wonderful experiences, this really was one of the weirdest. Not a sound broke the stillness, save the barking of innumerable jackals, and the stars spangled in the heavens like lamps let down. Very early in the morning the train puffed into the lonely station, after a 12 hours’ journey from Basra. In the afternoon we drove to the ruins of Erech, where the original Flood Tablets were found. That night we slept again in the station of Diwama, and our Australian experience of doing the best we could under the circumstances helped greatly.”