PALESTINE.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 January 1918, Page 5

PALESTINE.

TURKS DESERT FALKENHAYN. WHILE ON THE MARCH. hALF THE ARMY DISAPPEARS. deceived Jan. 23, 5.5 p.m. . Washington, Jan. 22. Official despatches state that 160,000 Turks, over 50 per cent, of Von Falkenhavn's entire army, deserted during the march fron Constantinople to Palestine.

PROPOSED JEWISH NATION. A COMMISSION APPOINTED. London, Jan, 22. At the Jewish Conference at Bradford, a member of the executive council of the Zionist Federation stated that the Government intended shortly to . allow a commission to proceed to Palestine tO' prepare for the establishment of a Jewish nation. Afterwards a staff of technical experts, engineers, architects,' agriculturists, and town-planner* would go out. The Zionist Mission did no/ intend to i create a group of international financiers | to exploit Palestine, but to place on the land by purchase a Jewish proletariat that would work harmoniously with the, Arabs. J

UNDERGROUND JERUSALEM ARE THE SAORED TREASURES THERE? According to & tradition, disputed tfiough pretty well generally accepted, when the Babylonians took Jerusalem and removed the Jews into captivity by the waters of Babylon they failed to sequin the arlc of the Covenant, the table of shrew* bread, and the ieven-branghed candlestick. ' These ancient objects of Jewish veneration (says a writer in Melbourne Age) were said to have been hidden among the soft limestone caves, of which there are many underneath the city, an expression which would include tho adjacent area. The secret of the hiding-place or places was confled to the family' of the High Priest, and- was carefully guarded. When Cyrus permitted the Jews to return, after the 70 years' captivity, their leader, Ezra, reconstructed the temple l on the lines of Solomon's Temple as far as possible. But he could not replact the wealth of ornamentation in gold and other material, the Jews being now a poor people. In Solomon's time they had expanded their boundaries for a short time because the two - great empires of the Assyrians and the Egyptians had become utterly exhausted by their tontiuunns wars. Solomon got astride the great Asian-African trade route, and got far enough south to secure Akabah as an outlet on the Red Sea for the South Arabian and Indian Ocean trade. He made the most of his opportunities, and levied tribute like any robber knight on the Rlune did on the unlucky traders who had to pass his stronghold by land or by water. Ezra is said in the Bible narrative to have made a new ark, a new table, and a new candlestick on the mode of the old sarcrcd relics, the measurements being known from the old records in the Pentateuch, and they and the Temple were in ilue time solemnly dedicated to the glory of Yahweh. But a tradition exists in the East that Ezra had knowledge of the hiding' place of the original ark, table, and candlestick, and made hi; replicas from the actual holy relies; but the secret of their actual existence was carefully guarded. ■ What the new ark, table, and candlestick were like wo can see on' the arch of Titus at Rome, which was erected to commemorate his Palestine and other campaigns, theso sacred relies being depicted in relief as they were borne in the triumphal procession voted by the Senate and people on the return of Titus. They were then kept in Rome, probably in tho Temple of the Capitoline Jove, In 410 A.D. Alaric the Visigoth took Rome by storm, and was extremely merciful to the city and the people, but naturally required some plunder, and followed the usual custom of taking' possession of the enemy's most sacred relics and religious objects. Kow comes in a considerable doubt as to liie fate of the ark, table,, and candlestick. One legend says that they wore thrown, with other treasures, into the river for safe keeping by Father Tiber, "to whom wk Romans pray,' 1 i»d to whom every Roman from earliest Jiuels to the present made, and makes, ofiVrings on special occasion, the more wealthy frequently throwing objects of gold and silver. or other precious material. Another legend says Alaric secured.these precious relics, and that when he died in the south of Italy they were buried with him, with other treasure, in the river bed of tlie Buseiito. The rtory goes that tile Visigoths, /earing the desecration of the grave of their king, collected the people in the neighborhood, made theui turn tho course of .the little stream, then Uig jjie grave. When that was ready, and the king was buried, surrounded by his treasures, the people were made to restore the stream to its former course, and then were slaughtered, in order that th'j grave of the great dead should remain unknown, and therefore free from "all fear of desecration. Another legend states that these treasures were lost during the great storm which wrecked a large part of Alanc's fleet when he attempted to oross to Carthage, and it was this storm which turned him back to die on Italian soil. ? Though the Turkish Government h&ve at intervals allowed excavations t 0 he carried on under Jerusalem, and both Generals Warren and Wilson, of the R»)al Engineers, working under the Palestine Exploration Fund Committee nade important discoveries, and later the objects so venerat- ' ky the Jews have never been found As a matter of fact, the amount of ex' ploiation done has been very small and •t .. a testimony to the knowX 2 acuteness of tho various explorers tWk so satisfactory results have Been obtain* Quite recently a syndicate was formed fin i a ? j kcr (of the Macclesfield family) and friends to explore beneath Jerusalem. They found plenty of influ thev lot «°f th f right I warter - for the} „ot a firman from Abdul Hamid, and were allowed unusual latitude as to !!'[ ir "Potions. There, was a hint that ooaw u&on wtu extr&ordJtajtfy