THE HOLY LAND

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2653, 27 December 1915, Page 6

THE HOLY LAND

The Russian newspaper "Sviet" publishes the following from a correspondent in Jerusalem:—"Jerusalem is at present'simply overrun by Turks and arrogant German officers. The heights of Calvary have been transformed into a battery. The marble and jade columns and statuary, which have for centuries ornamented the place where our Saviour suffered His martyrdom, have been removed to givo way to two Krupps' cannon, which aro being used for target practice—the targets ' lia,ving been mounted on the slopes of Mount Olivet. On that part of Calvary where, according to tradition, the Holy Mother wept over Her dying Son, the German trader Hans Muller has opened a store, where, in the day time, he traffics mainly in soap and tobacco, and wlicro, at night time, the Gorman non-commissioned officers congregate in order to drink beer and to rouse the echoes of tho holy places to their lewd songs. The place where Christ taught His disciples tho Lord's Prayer has been fenced in by a wattle and barbed wiro fenco, as the Germans havo here established their main artillery depot. Mount Olivet, whence our Lord asconded, is the favourite centra of manoeuvres. Shouts, shots, bugle calls, abuse, hatred, and blood— that is the atmosphere now surrounding the locality which for two thousand years has been tho greatest sanctuary of the Christian world."