The Daily News. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1915. BRITISH INFLUENCE IN PALESTINE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 203, 4 February 1915, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1915. BRITISH INFLUENCE IN PALESTINE.

It certainly would not bo 0110 of the least dramatic results of the present war if tin; defeat of Turkey brought Palestine under British protection, If the inhabitants of Palestine were con--1 suited as to the State to which thej , would prefer to give their allegiance in the future, it is almost certain that the overwhelming majority of the monJewish population would choose Great -Britain (says a correspondent in tho New Statesman). As for the Jewish inhabitants, with exceptions that one could almost count on tho fingers of one s hands, they would certainly Tote for Britain. Britain is, in fact, almost the only Power that lias erer shown any sympathy with the Jewish people. English political writers have repeatedly advocated a British protectorate for Palestine for the benefit of the Jews. Palmerston brought all the influence of British diplomacy to bear at Cairo and at Damascus on the occasion of the prosecutions that followed the Blood Accusation of 1810. At a later date both, Beaconsficld and Salisbury supported Laurenco Oliphant in his negotiations with the Porte for a concession which was to pave the way to an autonomous Jewish State in th e Holy Land. England has sentimental, educational and archaeological interests in Palestine. It has, besides, commercial interests which dwarf those of all other Powers into insignificance. It i 3 a little early to discuss the partition of the Turkish Empire, says the British Guardian, but the idea of a revival of the Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem, lately propounded, is undoubtedly a u attractive one—except, of course, to the Zionists, though they can scarcely think that 1 their own dream of a Jewish State j with the Holy City for its capital stands mucii chance of being realised. Tue old Kingdom established by the Crusaders lias a fine record of military achievement, nor does the allegation that it ultimately tell through the degeneracy of its Christian inhabitants Seem to be capable of proof. There is no doubt tiiat the Jews have received new hopes as to Palestine as tile result of the war. ''After the lapse of centuries," says the Jewish Chronicle, "the old Land of Promise may once more change hands. The whirligig of events may bring round some opportunity of establishing the country as a centre of 'Jewish colonisation. More than onee in the past Turkey nas received notice to quit Europe, but this is the first time that this liquidation of Turkey in Asia has become a definite prospect, and with Mr. Asquith's words at the Guildhall the •' hopes of the Zionists have suddenly pass- j <'d irom an ideal into a matter of prac- r tieal politics. The hope of the Jews for a restoration of the Jewish State' 'is as old as the Diaspora It sprang) into being on the morrow of tue first 1 exile." To Theodore Herzl the solu-1 tion of the Jewish problem "lay in the ( creation of a Jewish autonomous state' in Palestine," and h e tried to obtain a charter from the Sultan to safeguard a I Jewish settlement of Palestine. «ut ! these negotiations iailcd. Then Mr J Chamberlain offered a site in Britisir East Africa This was declined and led to the formation by Mr Zangwill and his friends of the Jewish Ter •

Organisation (1.T.0.), for the creation of a Jewish autonomous settlement in any part of the world, an ideal not yet achieved. If the Government of Turkey had remained in the hands of Abdul Hamid it is impossible to say whether ilw/.l's idea would have heen realised or not. With the advent of Young Turkey, however, all possibility of such an event disappeared; with it passed away Zionism as a political movement. 'lt became entirely a movement for the recreation, after the lapse of two thousand years, of a Jewish centre in Pales- ! tine. Jerusalem was to he, not the capital of a Jewish State, but the centre of ,/ewish culture. Incidentally it would have a considerable Jewish population, and become ultimately a land of refuge, if one were required, for persecuted Jews. But this belonged to the future. This work bad been well under way since the first Jewish colonies were founded by the refugees from the Russian massacres of 1882. It had been continued every year with greater success until now some thirty Jewish agricultural colonies, practically all selfsupporting and prosperous, have beca established, and if the country had not been drawn into the vortex of this war it is probable that, in the course of time, a new Jewish race of peasants and fanners would have arisen in Palestine, w<nout any non-Jewish assistance. Practically the whole of the devclopmi -i.» of Palestine during the past quarter of a century has been effected by thcee Jewish settlers. Incidentally it may be mentioned that a large portion of ttie new trade created by them is vitli tho British Empire Left alone the future of the Jews in Palestine would hare been secure. But the country is now in tha melting-pot, and the crisis ha? come too soon for tho Jewfl to be able to copo with it unaided.