TOPICS OF THE TIMES.

Southland Times, Issue 19895, 14 June 1926, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE TIMES.

A little while ago it was reported that the Donkhobors in British Columbia were leaving Canada with the idea of returning to Russia, but the latest announcements by the Department of Education in British Columbia show that they have at last decided to send their children to Canadian schools. For years the members of this Russian sect, which migrated to Canada in 1899, after persecution in Russia, refused to send their children to school and burnt many school buildings erected by the Government. The sect lives under very strict rules, and adheres to communal ownership. All forms of military service are denounced, because the doctrine of the Donkhobors are opposed to violence or the use of force in resistance. They also reserve the right to disregard the ordinances of the Government if they considered them to be opposed to their religious beliefs, but in Canada they have been regarded as wellbehaved and lav/-abiding individually, though in such matters as education they have resisted the Government. It is now believed that, as a result of this policy, the Donkhobors will gradually adopt the Canadian mode of life altogether. A plan is on foot in Jerusalem to give a permanent home to the English College, a local school run on lines similar to the English public schools. A fund of £50,000 is being raised under the auspices of Lord Plumer, High Commissioner for Palestine, for a new building on the Mount of Olives. The promoters declare that “the everincreasing demands for British education, and its expansion on more elaborate lines,” necessitate the removal of the institution from its present hired buildings to its own permanent premises. Opened in 1904, the English College holds a unique position in the educational system of Palestine, and during the last five years has developed steadily. It prepared students with considerable success for Oxford and Cambridge higher certificate examinations. It also prepared candidates for the Palestine matriculation, conducted by the Palestine Board of Higher Studies. This constitutes the secondary school “general leaving examination” for all Palestine, and is conducted in English, Arabic and Hebrew. In 1925, seven of the 10 successful candidates came from the English College. The collet has a thorough basis for its curriculum. The native tongues of the students, Arabic or Hebrew, are given a prominent place, while the classical literatures of these languages, together with English literature, occupy as cultural subjects somewhat the same place as Latin and Greek do in the secondary schools abroad. Study of history and geo graphy take as their starting point the i special conditions of the Near East. There |is every indication in the work of the I college (says one writer) that in it lies the I foundation of a future British University in Jerusalem, the establishment of which , has been given impetus by the progress of I the Hebrew University, opened by Lord ! Balfour in the spring of 1925. The momen- ; tary handicap of the English Collie in ; its progress toward such a goal is inI adequate accommodation, and the initiators of the fund hope that the necessary support will be forthcoming “to enable British education in Palestine to continue its progress toward the full university standard.”