PLAIN AND PORTS OF PALESTINE
INTERESTING LANDSCAPE DESCRIBED
(By Lieutenant Charles Madsford.)
Tho littlo country' of Palestine is an arid, rolling, upland traot, much overj drained by the striking depressions of the Ghor, in wdvich its only important river flows. Eastward the ridges and stretches of land are often bare, while the pastoral portions are a prey to wandering tribes who, till now, havo found nothing to tempt them to agricultural pursuits in a' district which needs cultivation and irrigation, and has for so long been under the blight of Turkish rule. In the hollows of the seaward slope there is, however, a striking improvement; more westward still mountain slope and coastal strip stretch wide or narrow bands of fertility, omerald green against the ivory, glistening, thundering surf, or merge them into a line of glinting gold where the sands meet a sea of azure. Just as cultivation seems to increase from east to west, so the maritime plain of Palestine improves generally as' jt moves .north, from its boundary horror of blistering Tih to where Gaza lharks the beginning of verdure. It is more verdant still where the increasing oasis of Jaffa is clothed with countless groves of lemon and of orange. 'North of the Palestino shore itself, olive groves, palm trees, and mulberry gardens bedeck Beyrut, and the tobacco fields of Tripoli and Latakia shimmer green, russet, and gold under an eastern sky. Link between Asia and Africa, this plain, with'its open ends defenceless, has been Iho'stormy passage of many contending nations. Tho British Expeditionary Force from Egypt has moved successfully over a large portion of it. 'Here Thotinos passed to tbo Euphrates. Sennacherib traversed this route, sending part of his army, against Jerusalem while the main body of his troops marched to tho . bordors of Egypt. Necho wont up and Nebuchadnezzar came clown this land. This .way Cambysos passed, and Alexander the Great', too. The Romans built their roads here, treading and retreading this sacred soil. AVhon the corn was green and tho fragrant flowers of the field filled the spring air with sensuous delights, Napoleon brought here his Egyptian army; he left a long line of burning villages, of golden grain aflame, and a promise-of gaunt famine as lie retreated "when high summer caine. The coast of Palestine is a remarkable one; what openings it had have been steadily silted tho sand which the prevailing south and west winds drift there. There are no large islands off'the coast; it has. not a single, large, natural, sheltered gulf or sea haven. , Yet the coast docs differ; north of Carmel the mountains push to the shore in many places, thus constricting the area- of cultivable land; south of it oliff and sandhill, straight and monotonous,, without crag for.sea .bird or island eyrie, run on and on to the confines of Sinai's shore and beyond. Yet this straight, unpromising coast was home and haunt of sea-loving Phoenicians. There, grappling, with Nature, men fought t.he ?ea, built their cities, and scooped out their harbours. Thoy knew the islands of the Mediterranean; they sailed into the Baltic, taking toll of amber, and to Cornwall, of Great Britain, taking tin; they navigated the Red Sea and '■■ took of the spices of Arabyj pearls from tho Persian Gulf, flashing gems of Ind and gorgeous raiment adorned the houris of their palaces of splendour. Carthago testifies of them, and all the north of Africa, too. Spain, Italy, and Greece gave and took wares of price that the Phoenicians dealt in.
The one flourishing port on this coast to-day is 1110 Syrian port of Beyrut, standing on the • point of Jebel-er-Rosheh, .the city/ sloping gradually down to the sea. It is ilfty-fivo miles from Damascus, and was onco its mevo port. It out-rivals that city now; it has considerable trade, and is specially famous, as always, for its silk. It has a population of about one hundred and fiftv thousand.
The ancients Tealised clearly the valuo of its coast to Palestine. Her ports can tap tho products of' a portion of Egypt, Arabia, Mesopotamia, and Syria, as well as Anatolia, Tho caravan trade, upon which much depends, does not necessarly decrease with'the growth'of failways, for both are equally of value. The ship of the desert affords cheap transit, and time is not unduly valued in the East, so that the restoration of these old ports would confer enormous commercial advantages upon the country. Just as the Osmanli Turk has failed to encourage, systematically, the agricultural possibilities of Palestine, so he has likewise neglected her ports and her shipping. Once the country passes into tho hands of the Jewish nation to control, and its government is placed upon a progressive and constitutional basis, the incalculable value of tho coast in the Mediterranean Sea will begin to be realised. Only a supine and useless Government like that, of Stamboul could havo failed, for so many centuries to grasp the commercial possibilities of a country occupying such a profoundly valuable 'geographical position.
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Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 155, 20 March 1918, Page 5
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834PLAIN AND PORTS OF PALESTINE Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 155, 20 March 1918, Page 5
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