THE TURK IN IERUSALEM.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 March 1916, Page 6

THE TURK IN IERUSALEM.

MASTER OF A JEALOUS HOUSEHOLD. CONFLICTING CHRISTIAN SECTS. Pew pilgrims or tourists return from the Holy City without a sense of shock at the exploiting of the divine (says a writer in the Manchester Guardian). "Jerusalem the.Golden" takes on a new and cynical meaning, Americans maintain that a round of the holy sites—many of them shown in half-a-dozen places, and that with loud wrangling—would make a saint swear and rob the most, devout of his religion. The tripper is run along the "Via Dollarosa," wiu'i.> lie can appreciate at its true worth such a palpable fraud as the place where Pilate washed his hands, and having paid his money he takes his choice of Calvaries—even the most absurd, for not nil are reasoned, as Wilson's is, or Gordon's. A new cava (the country is riddled with them), a new tunnel under an ancient house, a dug-up ikon or fragment of pottery and metal —all these are promptly fitted with New Testament stories and take their place as revenue-producers. But the most grievous shock which the'impressionable visitor receives is the sight of Turkish soldiers with rifles in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, an<J again out at Bethlehem, in the sacred Grotto o'f the Nativity. Here the On Bashi, or corporal comes on duty and carefully counts the silver lamps in the very grotto itself to see that none liabeen taken. He carries a short sword and a kourbaje, or rhinoceros-hide whip. Seldom has Palm Sunday passed, or even Easter Day itself, without disturbance. Let us be fair to the Turk. His manner as guardian is exemplary—far more reverent than that of some of the polyglot Christians who swarm in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. And his presence there has been necessary in the circumstances, for the fires of enmity smoulder angrily from generation to generation, and Greek and Latin, Armenian and Copt, are apt to quarrel on Resurrection Day.

CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE. A great European war—the Crimean—had its birth in potty disputes about privileges and sitSs in this holiest of churches, where the lighting of a candle or the dusting of a shrine by a too officious monk may start a fray. The Turkish troops are really to be pitied during the Greek Easter, which is the most uneasy time of the whole year. Thousands of Christian pilgrims flock into the city from all lands. Long days of rigid fasting are crowned by the endless ceremonies' of Holy Week, ending with the Greek fire—a mystical service which iindoubtedlv raises paasion to fever heat. Christians abuse the Jews for hours together, and when the holy fire is thrust forth from tho sepulchre violence sometimes follows. Large drafts of extra troops are in attendance from the Tower of David, A Yuz Bashi, or captain of one hundred, hurries down with experienced non-coms, and men—-good-tempered enough fellahs who hustle all factions, religions, and nationalities out of the church and the court, to cool their frenzy in back lanes. If the Turk succeeds in this he.gets no credit. If he fails a dozen consuls complain to tke Mutessarif and threaten to report that high official to Stamboul.

TURKS KEEP ORDER. A double file of troops keeps a path in the Holy Sepulchre, another line make way out in the .flagged court, where I have seen the Y'uz Bashi himself give his arm to an ol<l Russian lady and lead her to safety out of certain suffocation. On Palm Sunday morning of last year a Latin priest began assiduously to dust a Crusader's tomb at the entrance to the Holy Sepulchre. The Greeks had their eye on him, and a week later prepared for the new "annexation," which they suspected Avas in view. The defenders accordingly manned the side galleries of the court, and presently rained down flower-pots and stenes upon the Latins. Rut the watchful Vuz Bashi intervened. It was a drawn battle with stveral injured—among the latter some of the Turkish troops who were trying to restore order between the two sects. I spent Easter Day with the Mutcssarif and his wife out in the blazing wilderness of Mar Saba; where the couple spread a generous table in the big green tent uiiil»)- the walls of the penal monastery which no woman may ever visit. Aziz Rev, Governor of Jerusalem, is a poet and a gentleman; his wife an unveiled and cultured lady, speaking perfect French, and with wide knowledge of the European capitals. We spoke of the scenes that shocked the reverent visitor tn the Holv City. "You won't see it at Mecca,"' the Mutessarif assured me. "There's only one religion there, not. half a dozen. Only one Cod and one Ministry." What could the Christian return to a home-thrust like this? He was grateful to Madame for turning the subject to "Votes .'or Women," and whether American States that had it were socially better fur !he long-sought suffrage. Xow the Turk must lose the Holy Land, and Saiyr itself will develop its wondrous soil, from Tvre and Sidon eastward to .he confines of the Arabian TV. sort. How are the Holy Places to be adminis!.'red when the great war is over and Jerusalem's vast. European "colonies" voice their powerful claims? Those walled 'ities within the.pity: those glittering churches and schools, hostels ami monasteries that thrive upon pious gold, and are viewed as. h'alf-niythica! shrines by pilgrims in far-off Christian lands. Even the aged Taitou, Empress of Abyssinia, built, herself a mausoleum church in Jerusalem.- It is safe to say that 1)0 more delicate problem awaits the great peace tribunal than that of the Holy City without the restraining baud of the Turk to assert the sway of a master, albeit an intolerable one, in a jqalous household.