A JEWISH PALESTINE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12082, 10 August 1917, Page 7

A JEWISH PALESTINE.

THE RETURN TO THE PROMISED LAND. WAP. AND THE ZIONISTS. (By H SACKER. in the ' Dailv New.-.") In the eyes of all the. world a Jewish Palestine has now l>eeo;iie praeMeal politics, I'M- Weizmann. the. president or Engl if h Zionist. E-dera'ion, lias p;ih!:olv Renounced that th« British Government stands for a, Jevisb pap-siim. and tlvit the he id of ihe Catholic Church con templates a Jewish Palestine thp u turns/, benevolence. do reapse thK ciaPLra'ion lies not have always sent'-- Jews ui P:destme .-.inc.-, first their fa'hers -n'e r pe! tho Promised Land, .cid a.-. P'o as seventh <en'ur--. e?r l a:rdy. the hop*

still lived ot lestoring the Jewish ; -ta r e. by j:ome swift strok.; of aims 'llv Arab (■(uiquosr .iucMoiie,! it definitely, and fiom that time, nn v. hat ever the Jews eouPJ do or \- i?l in Palestine i\as dt-pen-fleiii on the pleasur • of the Mohammedan rulers of lire coautry. On the ■a ho!-, ihr-v Mere irea'*'d mth no litilo consideration, but :lv : ir numbers deHi ned for many eenturies, until nuPed, the. early lialf of the nineteeni h century. )i i-. no'.e.uon by ilia' tin- "iu>. slight) attempt, at revival during that long stretch of time was inspired by the* pfiSreiiLions and expulsions renin SpainIn the nineteenth fomury .<<-•-,* s began io drift into Pa|e-,iino, mainly from Russia and South-eastern Kuropc. to fj'iidy the Tnrah, to obtain the. ps.e'e of their .-.cads, and io lav their hems in hallowed dust, in the 'nines Sir "'-loses Montefioi\:. began to plan the icttlme of dews upon the sod of Palestine as agriculturists. In the '.-i.•;!.!<-..- some Rus.-iaa Rabbis initiated a project for colonising Pales;ii)f, -v.th Russian and Rumanian doics. and in IS7O the Alliance ]s,,ie]-.te 1 nrccrsel!e established a farm school near Jaffa. The fust real colony was founded in IS7S near Jaffa, and it is a happiness to record that two greathearted statesmen, Lord Shaftesbury and Laurence Ohph.int, collaborated in fho work. For at least ope hundred .wars hnghshmen have identified them-sHvr-s with J he, resurrection of a Jewish Palestine the terrible, pogroms of tlK'eighties in Russian changed a. trickle into a, torrent. All over" Russia, and South-eastern En rep:, the. traditional passion for Palestine expressed itself in an effort to recreate en Palestine, a. home not onlv for the. Jew, but for the. tortured soul of Judaism. Beginning in I 8 2?, some Thirty or forty colonies wore, found hl, scaur-red over i Inv whole country. The men who came were, unused to the land or the climate, ignor."iiu oi agriculture, ill-equipped "'with money and material, and they received no help fnirn the Government. Wnh one. notable, exception, until recent years, they got no appreciable aid from their rich brethren in the, West. The. exception was Baron Edmund de. Rot lis'Tald, of Paris THE NEW ZIONISTS

Jewish s-eTdemerit in Palestine was and is the purest of deinncratir movements, and only that- quality and the fire 01 a. trr-'iir. ideal earned it. Through the. mart'Tdoni of the early years to as.-ured .success. When the war broke out rhere v.ci',-. KI-0.000 J P w S m PaEshup. Mim e 11.000 of i hem sett led cm the land They constituted one-sixth or one-seventh of the total population, and the one expanding, vital element. '1 hey had llieir trade unions, their co-n(-if!-fiiive_ .societies, their l.anks, their organisation i.M' iiaiinnalisiiH: property in ihe hmd, their agricultural expertmerit .-.ration. They had doubled and trebled ihe yield of the soil, they had drained lever pools, urgani.-eci a scientific campaign againsi. disease., irnprovcd ihe breed of cattle, established a in on i Idy agricultural journal, introduced modern maehineiv nn<\ modern technical methods, and laid the foundations ot new industries.

On spiritual side they have given a new life ro the Hebrew tongue. Hebrew ha sbec-onie the vernacular'of tho Jewish youth of Palestine, and tho language, in which the now Palestine publishes its iKe.v&pnpors and its books. Fveiv colony and every urban centre has its Heljrew school, and there are. several secondary schools where Hebrew is tlie language of instruction. On the. eve. ot tho war the. nhms wer e almost, completed for a beginnimt with a He blew university in Jerusalem, which aln-ady possesses a ,-ohoo] of ans and era its that, may become the mother of a art. In t heir government the Jewish colonics enjoyed fairly tub autonomy, and rich and poor, men and. women, had eoual rights. Of the .spirit of these new Jews i hose who know ah htsl hand the men and the land -peak with one. voice. Why has it taken till the third year of die. war for the Jewish nation to be recognised among the nations to whom justice must, be done, as a nation, tluj justice of a. Jewish PalestineP One reason is plain—-it lias taken three years to complete the bankruptcy ot oligarchy, and the huie Jewish oligarchy or piufoeraev which most nonJews were content to accept- as the mouthpiece of Jewry has been castdown Ivy the, same hurri'one which has swept, away the Grand Duke;-. To-day the Jewish people, speaks with its own voice. Another rea.-on is that it has been a slow work to extricate from a mixture of motives the rights of nationalities as the dominant motive, and to appreciate what it truly implies. A third reason is the coarse, teac-hintr of experience. The. Allies committed themselves to the. bfeak-ui l >, l -ol : Turkey, and Great Britain ro the conouest of Palestine. The future of Palestine was henceforth a question on the order of the day, and the promptitude with which the Turks responded by llie expulsion of Jewish colonists and Ihe devastation of Jewish colonies made it, as impossible liencoiorth for civilised men to burke the issu e as it js now to burke the Armenian question.. PALEST! NT. OF THE FETE RE.

Christendom a.nd Islam alike have tho deepest interest in the. Holy Places of PaksYine, and their rights, must and will 1)6 secured to thjL-rn in the fullest, pleasure that is necessary. But, this interest, is a. religions, not a national, interest. A little while .ago a distinguished geographer proposed that Palestine should be. converted into a. kind of vast ijrohififllo.o.ieal museum for Christians, in which the conditions of life of the first century should ho restored and. artificially maintained. A tendency to look upon Palestine with that kind of eye, though not expressed quit* bo extravagantly and candidly, is not, limited to one geographer. It is forgotten that it, was neither an artificial nor a petrified Palestine which gave religions inspiration to the world, but that, the Zion from, which the Law came forth was. tho natural home of the living Jewish paopLe. The Jews are the onlv people for whom Palestine is the natioua.l home and centre For the mom out it is not. necessary to indicate in detail the precise political , conditions under which in the Doomsday of the world the Jewish Palestine shall be completed. But two guiding principles must, be set down. The first js expressed in thi? 'maxim. tha f there must he no partition ei Palestine. The powers must, not, to satisfy this Imperialist, ambition er that, Imperialist appetite, or, to spare a diplomatist a. headache, anatomise the Tirmg body of Palestine as they anatomise.'! the living body of Poland. Such crimes avenge' themselves, as mankind in its torment knows. The second principle is that there raubf, he no condominium over Palestine,-—that ja, no division of sovereignty over Palestine between two or more Powers each of which desires and pursues the acquisition of Ihe whole sovereignty. A condominium \:> ■;>■ d"vic»-. of dinl'Mia.-

lists, moved primarily bv Imperialist considerations, for pacing- on their nifficuUiea to. their succv.ss.ors. All experience teaches that, such "compromises," while they last, moan desolation to i-h«i people and the territory subject to tltc- condominium. The politic;.! foundations of ihe. Jewish Palatine of the future, must be determined by the light, of nationrd right-