PALESTINE.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 May 1917, Page 5

PALESTINE.

CAMPAIGN CRITICISED. PERSECUTION OF JEWS. London, May 20. There is much comment on tho official silence as to the Palestine campaign. The Pall Mall Gazette says that the sequel suggests that the Gaza, 'battle was much less favorable than tlie official reports indicated. The impression .prevails that the objective was not obtained and that the casualties were high. Tho strictest martial law prevails at Jerusalem. Schools are closed and newspapers prohibited. The official archives and treasure have been hurried northwards. The Turks are brutally treating foreigners. The Jewish Society of Palestine has telegraphed to the Socialist Congress at Stockholm that the Turkish Government has ordered the Jews to evacuate Palestine, including kJudea, (Jerusalem and Galilee. The order is being enforced with increasing severity, and the pillage ia threatening to culminate in a massacre similar to that of the Armenians. INDEPENDENT JEWISH STATE. THE ALLIES' AGREEMENT.

Received May 21, 10 p.m. London, May 21,

Or. Weizman, presiding at an English Zionist Conference, said that though it was premature to talk of the establishment of an independent Jewish state, he was officially informed that the Allied Governments favored granting the Jews self-government in Palestine, under the protection of a great Power. The highest Catholic authorities did not object.