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With the Judæans in the Palestine Campaign

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<h2>CHAPTER XXXVI.</h2> <div class="center">The Dawn.</div> While Jerusalem was yet plunged in sorrow and filled with lamentation, the glad tidings arrived from San Remo that the Allied Council had endorsed England's promise of a National Home for the Jews in Palestine, and that Great Britain had been appointed the Mandatory Power. England, to emphasize her determination to deal justly with Israel, wisely decided that the ruler of Palestine should be a Jew, and appointed Sir Herbert Samuel as first High Commissioner of the Holy Land. When the great roll-call is made of those who have helped in bringing about the Restoration, the name of Baron Edmund de Rothschild will take a high and honourable place. His boundless munificence to the Zionist cause and to the Zionist Colonists in Palestine has helped the movement enormously. Palestine will loom larger and larger in world importance as the years roll by. We have seen that it is the very keystone of our policy in the Near and Far East, and when it is colonized by a friendly people working hand in hand with England then the vexed question of our interests in those regions will be solved. [275] There is plenty of room in Palestine for both Jew and Arab, and, in fact, one is the complement of the other. At present there are about 650,000 Arabs in the country, but when Palestine is watered and tilled and made a fruitful country once again, it will support a population of five or six millions of people. Not only would the Jews not injure the Arabs, but, on the contrary, Jewish colonization and Jewish enterprise will prove extremely beneficial to all the dwellers in Palestine. The Jewish immigrants now going into the country are full of boundless enthusiasm, ready to work and give even life itself to bring about the reconstruction of their ancient Homeland. With Jewish brains, Jewish labour, and Jewish capital, Palestine will be made to flourish like the proverbial green bay tree. The land will be irrigated and afforested; water power will be "harnessed" and made to supply light and heat. Trade of all sorts will spring up, fresh markets for goods will be opened, the wonderful natural harbour of Haifa will be improved—and all of this will naturally bring increased wealth and comfort to the Arab as well as to the Jew. Even at the present moment the Jewish colonies are a joy to behold, and the land in their immediate neighbourhood has gone up in value threefold. For many years the Jew and the Arab have worked together without the slightest friction, and I see no reason for any in the future. There will be no trouble whatever in Palestine between these two peoples when the country is properly governed, and the local[276] officials loyally carry out the policy of the Imperial Government. With an efficient straightforward Administration, holding the scales of Justice evenly, and working in co-operation with Jew and Arab, the dawn of a new and prosperous era for the Holy Land is assured, and Israel's age-long aspirations will at last be fulfilled. Britain's share towards the fulfilment of prophecy must, however, not be forgotten, and the names of Mr. Lloyd George and Sir Arthur Balfour, two men who were raised up to deal justly with Israel, will, I feel sure, live for all time in the hearts and affections of the Jewish people. It is owing to the stimulus given by the Balfour Declaration to the soul of Jewry throughout the world that we are now looking upon the wonderful spectacle unfolding itself before our eyes, of the people of Israel returning to the Land promised to Abraham and his seed for ever. In the ages to come it will always redound to the glory of England that it was through her instrumentality that the Jewish people were enabled to return and establish their National Home in the Promised Land. "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." <hr class="chap" /> [277] <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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