The Daily News. MONDAY, JIM 2, 1917. THE PALESTINE CAMPAIGN.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 July 1917, Page 4

The Daily News. MONDAY, JIM 2, 1917. THE PALESTINE CAMPAIGN.

New Zealand is personally interested in tho Palestine campaign for the reason that no inconsiderable number of our mounted men are fighting there, and the eaible from Rome last week announcing that the Italians are to co-operate -with the British in a vigorous offensive "by despatching an Italian army thither will fcnvo been received, with satisfaction. There is no doubt that we are finding the Turkish resis.-ncc a great deal more formidable than we reckoned upon. We were supposed to have achieved a victory at Gaza, the gate of Palestine, some month or two ago, 'but it seems now to have been a negative kind of win. The plain fact is that our forces are held up there, and that in order to break through we must have a considerably stronger force than is -t hand. The "gate" of .Palestine i> of great natural strength, and easily defended by a small army well equipped 'with modem guns, etc. On the defence, the Turk has shown himself in iHs war to be as tough a customer as he proved at Plevna, and evidently he is determined to hold this part of his domains at whatever cost. It looks as if we have again under-estimated the power of the onemv or over-estimated our own ability; just as we did at Gal'lipoli and in Mesopotamia, and not profited by those costly experiences. We ought to ibe able to draw upon India for all the men required, and as for munitions it seems from the statement made in the House ol Ui.;wis on Friday by the Munitions Minister that we have ample and to spare. India should be an inexhaustible field for recruits. Tihe hill tribes are born fighters, and General Nicholson shqwed during the Indian Mutiny that they are easily "licked into shape," and xwiike admiralble fighters. India should be able to supply armies for Mesopotamia and Palestine of a million. There may Ibe difficulty in officering such a number, hut if it is possible to make an officer of a white recruit in the course of a yesr, it should not Ibe an impossible task to create an Indian officer in that time, especially as they are very adaptible and born soldiers. We are not told iat India is doing, for obvious reasons, Ibut the if act that Italian assistance has 'been sought would show that the Indian army has not the necessary men to spare. It may be, of course, there are other reasons for ithe employment of Italians. Italy has always had big commercial interests in Palestine and Armenia, and, it may be, in the carving nip process that is inevitable Italy will be given a slice of the territory. Some publicists argue that lingland should assume ownership of Palestine, after we have beaten the Turk, as a means cf protecting the Suez Canal and cne of the main arteries of tlie British Empire, (but others just as energetically maintain that the canal would ibe more easily and olieaply defended 'by watching the few tracks across the Sinai Desert than by holding the mountains from Mount Carmel to the Jordan Valley and the hills of Judaea. Britain did not enter the war for territorial gain. She had already fliad as much as she could comfortably assimilate. The war has given her practically the whole of the German colonies, and whatever happens to them, one thing is certain—they never will be given 'bask to Germany for that treacherous and criminal nation to use against us again. Annexing Palestine is a different thing. It would be like, as an English writer has said, "putting one's I hand into a wasps' nest." The question of the Holy Places is still as thorny as ever it iwas. All the European churches, and therefore the nations, are (profoundly interested in Jerusalem, and for one of them to annex it might create- discord and lay the foundation of future international trouble, a thing which after this awful war we must avoid at all cost. There is tihe proposal to colonise Palestine with Jews, who have been working at the scheme for twenty or thirty yei.ra As a matter of fact, a

number of small Turkish colonies were established {before the roar, and were making steady progress, (but the bloodthirsty Turk lias done liis best—or worst—to wipe out the whole Jewish population, as he did the .Armenians. Freed from the Turk and given peace and order, iit is probable that the Jews would multiply and prosper. But the existence of an isolated Jewish State would b» precarious. It must have behind it some Christian Power, or it would become as helpless as Egypt before the Anglo-French occupation. Tor Italy to luxve protective (pclsver would be to cause the same distrust as might follow a British protectorate, and it lia3 been suggested that America has here a great opportunity of rendering a service to .Europe and the east toy protecting sudh a Jewish Republic in Palestine, just as she has fulfilled the task of protecting the Republics <rf Cuba and Panama. America would excite no jealousy. Her medical missionaries have ■for many years pervaded Asiatic Turkey from the Black Sea to the Bed Sea, and have won the confidence of the many races. Many confiiclting and irreconcilable amlbitions would thus Ibe stilled for ever, and Christians, Jews, and'MoAlems alike could visit peacefully the sacred (places ■which have an eternal appeal for mankind.