ACRE'S LAST CAPTURE.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 129, 7 January 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

ACRE'S LAST CAPTURE.

On November 4, 1810, Acre, a senport town of Palestine, or. the Medi-j terranean coast, was captured by tl.e British for the Turks from Ibrahim, the Khedive, or hereditary viceroy of Egypt, which country desired to bo independent of Turkey and to possess iii land of Israel. Acre is mentioned only twice in the Bible, once as Aecl.o (Judges, cli. i. v. 31). from which its present name was derived, and once as Ptolenmis (Acts xxi. 7), as it .9 eight times called in the Apocryphal first book of Maccabees, being so nam ed from Ptolemy, the name of nir.e successive Kings of Egypt from B.C. ;>23 till B.C. Si) (I Maccabees eh. v. vf. 35, 55; x. 35>, o*; xi. 22, 24; xii. 48 xiii. 12). But it is a place of sue importance that history records it to have been at least eight times besieged, even from A.D. ()3S. The most costly of these was that accomplished by Richard the First. King of England, and other icrusaders, or those lighting under the banner of tho "Cios*." to rescue the Holy Land and Holy City from Mahometans. The Christians captured Acre in 1191 after two years' fighting, but with a loss of (3 archbishops 12 bishops. 40 earls, 000 barons and 300.000 soldiers. It was defended bv tho Turks against the French in 1799, till the British Admiral, Sir William Sidney Smith, arrived for their relief, and Napoleon Bonaparte, alter making twelve attempts to capture it from March 16 t 11 May 20, was compelled to retreat. The last attack upon it proved to be much bhorter, though successful. Admiral Sir Robert Stopford, with an allied fleet, took it after bombarding it for a few hours, and while the Egyptians lost upwards of 2,000 killed and wounded and 3.000 prisoners, the British had only 12 killed and 42 wounded. When the present European war ends, it does not seem probable that Turkey will retain possession of Palestine, and if the British Govern ment then control it, as it docs the neighbouring island of Cyprus, tl.e Suez Canal, and Egypt, Jews will b most sure of liberty and equality f they choose to settle in the land of their forefathers.