LXXII.

EDWARD CAZALET’S ZIONIST VIEWS

“IT was through the armed intervention of England, that, in the year 1841, Syria was transferred from Egyptian to Turkish rule. At that time Lord Palmerston was in office; and his policy, as he explained to the French Ambassador, M. de Bourgoing, was to turn Syria into a desert under Turkish rule, and interpose this desert between the Sultan and his Egyptian vassal. In confirmation of this, which may seem to some an astounding statement, I can only refer you to ‘Guizot’s Memoirs,’ vol. 2, p. 525 ... to Syria assuredly reparation is due on the part of England.... To attempt to improve the Turkish Government of Syria is, for obvious reasons, a hopeless task.... No other country has anything like the same interest in Syria, that we have; besides which, it is to the English nation alone that the population of Syria look for protection and support....

“It was England who handed this country over to the Turks in 1841. Turkey has ever since abused her charge, and it is only just that she should be now called upon to transfer it into more capable hands.”

“The Arabs, who form two-thirds of the whole of the population of Syria, and are for most part lords of the soil, are with very few exceptions completely illiterate, regardless of truth, dishonest in their dealings, and immoral in their conduct. In large towns the greater proportion of the upper classes are both physically and mentally feeble, owing to the effects of polygamy, early marriages, and degrading vices. Out of such elements there is no possibility of creating a ruling class. The other sects are too few in number, and too bigoted and superstitious, to be of any assistance in the government of the country. If, then, the regeneration of Syria is to be attempted, it must of necessity come from without, and can only be brought about by an influx of an industrious and more enlightened people. Fortunately this last resource is not denied to us. The restoration of the Jews to their own land, seems to me the only practicable means by which the regeneration of Syria can be effected. You must not imagine that this event, important though it unquestionably must be, need cause any great perturbation in Europe, or prove in any way a strain upon the resources of England. All that is required is that England should create the conditions under which a large number of Jews would gradually migrate on their own account to Syria and Palestine. The first condition of such a movement is that law and order should be introduced under our Protectorate....

“But there is another influence which would greatly assist the colonization of the country. It has long been a cherished project with the Jews to establish a college in the Holy Land, which would serve as a centre of Jewish philosophy and science. Such an institution would readily meet with support, and incalculably quicken the pulses of their national life. With an extensive literature in their own language, in which every branch of philosophy and science is represented, the Jews would be able to make such an institution a genuine centre of intellectual activity. The leading learned men of the Jewish race would be naturally attracted to such a national centre, and would form a nucleus round which all the intellect of the nation would gather, by means of which the necessary elements of the future government of the country might be formed. I understand that the most suitable site for this college has already been generally agreed upon.

“I have still to show you that these attractions would be sufficient to induce numbers of Jewish families to migrate to Syria. The total number of the Jews throughout the world is variously estimated from eight to ten millions. Of those the greater number――probably six millions ――inhabit Russia and the old Polish provinces which now belong to Austria, Germany and Roumania. The condition of the Jews in Russia is deplorable in the extreme. They are denied civil rights. They are forbidden to hold landed property. They are treated as aliens, and are restricted to limited areas in which they suffer from the evils of over-population. These conditions have induced no fewer than 250,000 Jews to emigrate to America within the last thirty or forty years, and it may be confidently predicted that Syria under our protectorate would offer still greater attractions. The land of Palestine alone, is capable of supporting ten times its present population. It may seem strange to say of the Jews who are scattered throughout the world, that they still consider this to be their fatherland. But, if they are denied the actual possession of it, they still bear it in their hearts. Three times a day every Jew offers up a prayer for the restoration of his race to the land and the temple, from which he has been exiled for eighteen centuries. It is a remarkable fact that this scattered and downtrodden people possess within themselves all the elements which go to form a united nation. They have a code of laws for their own government; they have a literature, a history, a language and a religion, which are peculiar to them. Their education is, with some exceptions, on a par with that of the most civilized nations. Numbers of them excel in all the different branches of mechanics and art; and in trade and finance they are, as we all know, unrivalled. Though last, not least they are a people who would fight bravely in the defence of their country.

“During the last twenty years of the reign of the Emperor Nicholas, the military conscription fell heavily upon the Jews. In proportion to their numbers, for every Russian that was enlisted, five Jews were compelled to enter the service; and during the late Turkish war they bore themselves bravely in the face of the enemy. _No one who has any knowledge of the Jewish character can for a moment doubt that if the Jews were restored to their country under an English protectorate they would prove true to our nation, and that Syria would become as firmly united to England as if it were peopled by our own countrymen._”¹

¹ England’s Policy in the East: our Relations with Russia and the Future of Syria. By Edward Cazalet. Second Edition. London: ... 1879. [8º. iv + 32 _pp._ in printed wrapper.] _pp._ 22‒26.