JERUSALEM.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15130, 26 January 1917, Page 4

JERUSALEM.

The solution of the question as to who is to have Jerusalem will be only second in importance to the future of Constantinople. Even we in remote New Zealand have a close concern in the campaign, for a portion of. our mounted troops are certain to have a leading share in the advance, as they were in action at El-Arish recently and have, in fact, been associated with 'the defence of Suez and Elgypt since the beginning of the war. An Australian student of Oriental affairs discusses the future disposal of Palestine in some interesting notes. He recalls the fact that quite forty flourishing Jewish colonies, which had been established in the Holy Land during more than fifty hard struggling, have been ruthlessly destroyed, and the once happy inhabitants have been robbed, murdered and scattered. Over 80,000 have gone to Egypt to find a safe refuge under the Union Jack in the land of Jewish bondage. “The Allies,” declared this writer, “must sooner or later take away Palestine from the murderous Turk and give it to its rightful owners—the Jews. It is a position of tremendous strategical importance; and Britain must either possess it or place in it a people under the joint protection of the Allies, or, take on herself the responsibility of protection. This war has practically upset the so-called balance of power in Europe and Asia, and the Turkish dominions must be distributed among the Allies. As ia matter of course, Britain should now strive to undo the mistake she made in 1840, when she intervened on behalf of the Porte, and wrested Palestine from the Egyptian rule, to which it had been ceded by Turkey seven years before. How far different had the prosperity of Palestine been had it formed all these years an integral part of Egypt? Now, under an independent Sultan of Egypt, Palestine should once again be brought back to its national owner. There is hardly any possible plan which would so' further the Jewish prospects of colonisation, as it is quite certain, there is no power which looks upon them more sympathetically than the British Government.” In history, Palestine has seldom been able to stand alone, and it is urged that the linking up of the sacred land with Egypt would he in keeping with geographical considerations and with the teachings of the past.