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Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16144, 23 February 1918, Page 8

It seems to us that Sir James Carroll would do well to explain to the pakehas what he meant by urging Mr Uru, the newly-elected member for tho Southern Maori district, to associate himself with the Liberal Party, in view, apparently, of tho ending of. the party truce by a general election, -which Sir James declares -,yill take place in twelve months. Mr Uru's political views are unknown to us, b;it it doos not soem to us right thnt Sir James Carroll, a leading Liberal, and a former Liberal Minister, who for a time held the position of Acting-Prime Minister, should be engaged in proselytism for his party at this time i

Tho elector who asked Mr H. Holland, tho Red Fed candidato for "Wellington North, whether it was true that he objected to the singing of "God Save tho King," did not receive a satisfactory answer. Under pressure, Mr Holland had a good deal to say, but ho avoided the single issue that ho was asked to meet. Now, Mr Holland must have an opinion one way or the other, and if ho does approve of the "National

| Anthem,"' and joins in it in spirit i r.ot in voice, when it is sung, he cc j easily have said so. He is quite cl< enough as a speaker to have said 'and also if he had desired, to roh effectively anyone who doubted loyalty by asking such a. question, wretched evasions, if they do not ju6 a suspicion that Air Holland is quite sound, at least justify some j tlicr attempts to have the matter cli cu up. The electors of Welling North can hardly bo thought oparticular iu wishing to feel suro t they are voting for a loyal subject liis Majesty. ♦ <Some curious prophecics were filled when General Allenby, after surrender of Jerusalem, entered city on foot, net as a conqueror but a friend. For three hundred ye; says a Londoii paper, the inhabita of Jerusalem cherished ?. proph that their city would be taken In I friendly and benign Power, that ' would fall without bloodshed, that conqueror would enter it 011 foot, ; that his name would signify Allah 1 his prophet. The last condition is i gular, in view of the fact that Gene Allenby's name, long before the fall Jerusalem, had been given special s nificance by the Turks. Take the T kish words "Allah Xabi," meaning man, or emissary, or prophet, fr Allah, and ono gets something t] sounds not at all unlike Allenby. 'J Turks must havo felt themselves 1 fairly handicapped in fighting agai a man whose name obviously indica that lie was much more than an ord ary British General. * It is probable, too, that they ]i heard something of tho old prophi to which we havo referred, or of tl much older ono of which a corresp< dent tells, "I remember," he writ "a traveller in out-of-the-way plai in Palestine recounting a conversati he Jiad had with an old rabbi. T latter told him that a prophecy li been current iu Syria for at least thousand years to the effect that t Jews could not return to Palestine 1 til it was restored to thorn by Gre Britain. The rabbi said that it \v known among Jews that tho logic employed by Itjme to conquer Jem: lem were composed of British eoidie and that they had been brought frc Britain for the purpose. As Brito had driven them out, so Britons mi restore them —accomplishing at on tho fulfilment of a divine purpose a; poetic justice." During tho samo conversation an c Sheikh, who had been expressing, a parentlv, a hone that the prophe would be speedily fulfilled, was 1 buked by a fellow-countryman, who 1 minded him that tho British worshi ped threo Gods. "Yes, I know that replied the Sheikh. "Allah will puni; them for that hereafter. But mea whilo we should have prosperity and just government as they have Egypt." Ho is indeed a poor-.spirit< Briton in whom the world-wide grati cation at tho British occupation • Jerusalem does not inspire a thrill ■ pride. Not only in Syria and Arabi where th c inhabitants havo felt tl pressure of Turkish misgovornmcn has this satisfaction been express© but thc Jewish race throughout tl world, from tho millionaires of Londc aand New York to tho residents ' ghettos in cities of which the averaj man hardly knows tho names, have n joicod that it is iu the hands of Grer Britain that the future of Jerusalci and tho Holy Land lie. This univorsi evidenco of confidence in British fait and justico must be as galling to or enemies, and to our detractors withi our own gates, as it is gratifying to th nation as a whole.