Wairarapa Daily Times Established 50 Years. FRIDAY, MAY 1, 1925. PALESTINE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 1 May 1925, Page 4

Wairarapa Daily Times Established 50 Years. FRIDAY, MAY 1, 1925. PALESTINE.

In the month of November,, 1917, just, twelve montns betore me .-vrnmuco bi'ougut me Great \\ ar to ail enu, jar. jbauuur, as lie men was, gave a promise iu Bum notJisennd, on oenau or me xmtisii Government, that ev my endeavour wouid lie niaue to “facilitate tne ustauiisiinient in Palestine or a national nunie lor me Jewish nation.” It Was onty luting, then, that seven years after tne armistice, wnen, as one or me greatest and most important of tne many steps which Britain has since made to lulfil that promise, a Hebrew University was to be inaugurated in Jerusalem, Lord Balfour should have been selected for the honour of presiding over the opening ceremonies. The task of journeying ‘to the Holy Land, and of actively assisting at such a significant function, must have been a singularly pleasant one to the veteran statesman. It is the more unfortunate, therefore, that his pleasure should have been marred, and his departure hurried, by the racial and religious outburst at Damascus, of which the cables have informed us, and which appear to have, been inspired almost directly bv his presence. If it be any consolation to the aged Earl, however, he may remember that he is not the first eminent man to have had to flee secretly from “the oldest continuing city under the sun.” Nineteen hundred years ago a certain recently converted Jew, of the tribe of Benjamin, named Saul of Tarsus, was lowered in a basket from the old grey walls to escape from a hue and

cry that sectarian hatred had set up against him; and from that day to this the fury of race and creed has niany a time found riotous vent amid the crowded streets of Syria’s capital city. The chapter of the history of Palestine which the Armistice opened has proved to be by no means its least interesting one. Prance and England were at that time both deeply concerned in its future governance; France from the fact that, during the centuries, many treaties had conferred upon her ‘ ‘ the jcalouslj'-re-garded prerogative of the protection of Christians living in the Ottoman Empire, and of the holy places,” and Britain because she felt that Judea “lav too near the Suez Canal to be allowed to pass under the dominion of any other flag. ” So greatly was the overlordship of the country believed to be essential to the prestige of the country by whom it should bo exercised, that it is a fact, though not a very widely-published one, that when, at the end of 1918, the British army entered Damascus and brought the campaign in Syria to a triumphant close, the French fleet sailed into 'Beirut harbour with a significant synchronism that was not lost upon the diplomats of the Allied Powers. Considerable negotiation upon the matter followed, not entirely unheated, but eventually the San Remo agreement elevated Palestine to the dignity of a separate State, gave Britain its control, subject to the League of Nations, and left to France her historic suzeraintyover Syria proper.