LXXIII.

A COLLECTION OF OPINIONS OF ENGLISH CHRISTIAN AUTHORITIES ON THE COLONIZATION OF PALESTINE

1. _General Sir Charles Warren’s Views_

“MY proposal is simply an _arrangement_ by which, ... Palestine, this unfortunate land may yet be placed in ... a position which may enable her again to take a place socially among the kingdoms of the earth....”

“It will probably at once occur, ‘And what of the Arabs of Palestine?’ I ask in reply, ‘Who are the Arabs?’ They are certainly not Turks in any degree; they are for the most part not Arabs of Arabia, of the Desert. Then who are they? It has long been known, and no person has thrown more light upon the subject than M. Ganneau, that the people of Palestine are of a very mixed race: some of Canaanitish descent, some Jewish, some of Arabia. It is evident that many of them being Moslems are so for convenience,... We cannot, therefore, look upon the natives of Palestine as rigid Moslems of one race; but we must recognize them as descendants of Canaanites, Israelites, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, and Crusaders, now professing the Moslem or the Christian faith, according to circumstances, but retaining above everything the ancient traditions――yes, and in some instances, I have little doubt, their veritable old religion.”

“Palestine is about the size and shape of Wales, and has now a population of about one and a half millions. Give her good government, and quicken the commercial life of the people, and they may increase tenfold, and yet there be room. The soil is so rich, the climate so varied, that within ordinary limits it may be said that the more people it contains, the more it may. Its productiveness will increase in proportion to the labour bestowed on the soil, until a population of fifteen millions might be accommodated there.

“Let us observe how the country may be improved. It consists of the hill country, or mountain districts; the Shephalah or swelling hills, or _wolds_; the maritime and Jordan plains, and the tablelands of Arabia.

“All these are most productive naturally; but are, for the most part, at present enjoying a long Sabbath.

“In the hill country, even now the white skeletons of the old system of terracing are visible in parts; but the rich loamy soil is washed down into the wadies, leaving the hillsides bare and desolate, and glaring in their nakedness. A cultivated strip may be seen at the bottom of the wady, subject to being swept away by any storm of rain forming a torrent down the bare hillsides, or withered before its time by the reflection of the sun from the bare rocks.

“Place the valley in proper hands, and note the results. The earth from the bottom will be carefully carried up the hillsides, and laid out in terraces, on which are planted young trees――those of a more delicate nature being placed on the northern declivity, in order that they may suffer less from the sun’s rays. The trees thrive rapidly, as they will do in Palestine; the rain falls, but not as heretofore, rushing fiercely down the bare rocks, and forming a torrent in the valley. No; now it falls on the trees and terraces, percolates quietly into the soil and into the rocky hillside, and is thus absorbed, scarcely injuring the crops at the bottom of the valley. The rain that sinks into the rocks will shortly reissue in perennial springs, so refreshing in a thirsty land. The trees, having moisture in the soil at their roots, spread out their leaves in rich groves over the land. The sun’s rays now do not fall on the ground, but on the green leaves and fruit, by which they are intercepted and absorbed, giving no glare or reflection. The heat of the sun causes a moisture to rise from the trees and soil beneath them, which, on reaching the higher and cooler winds, is condensed into visible vapour, constantly forming as the breeze passes over the grove, so that each grove, so to speak, supplies its own umbrella. The climate is thus changed. Where were hot, glaring sun, dry wind, dry earth, stony land, absence of vegetable products, are now to be found fleecy clouds floating through the balmy air, the heat of the sun tempered by visible and invisible vapours, groves with moist soil, trickling streamlets issuing from the rocks, villages springing up apace, Palestine regenerated.

“This is no dream. I have seen this change take place in Palestine in three years, on a small scale. Why is the Lebanon so different to the hill country of Palestine? In a great measure, because, by reason of its position and conformation, its woods have not been cut down....

“Again, on the east of Jordan, in Gilead, I have seen the same. After riding for miles through the ruins in the glaring summer atmosphere, through a country denuded of trees, nearly choking with the scorching wind, I came upon a district where the ancient woods had not been cut down. Immediately a change was felt: clouds were seen hanging over the woods, the air became soft and pleasant, the sun’s rays beat less fiercely, flowers were seen under the trees, blackberries on the brambles, water gushing out from the hillsides, birds chirping in the shade. This was not due to any change in the atmosphere generally, but was entirely local, and due to the presence of trees. In fact, there are spots where you can, on the same level, change the climate in an hour by passing from the bare land to that which is well wooded.

“This matter I have frequently examined into in Palestine. I mention one particular instance. During the prevalence of hot winds at Jerusalem, I noticed two clouds constantly stationary a few miles off, in an otherwise cloudless sky. On riding over towards them, I found them to be hanging over two large olive groves about seven miles off, recently planted by the Greek convents. Although the wind was blowing briskly, the moisture ascending was condensed as quickly as it rose, and formed an umbrella over these groves.

“In the wolds of Palestine the same process may be continued. Not so much terracing is wanted, but much planting of wood, particularly on the south side――trees of a hardy growth; so that, with a green southern slope opposite, the delicate fruit trees planted on the northern slopes may bring their fruit to perfection.

“The water, which will now be found gushing from the rock, from springs which have long been silent, will be carried in ducts along the hillsides, and used for irrigation purposes, passing thence into the plain, where it can still be used for irrigation, or else assist in filling up the wells near to the surface of the ground――wells which have hitherto been between thirty to ninety feet deep.

“Now again we shall find a difference in the crops in the plain. Hitherto there has been but one season, and then a long interval of desolation, from July to November, when the heaven is of brass and the earth iron. During this long period, scarcely a green blade can be seen over the vast plains――nothing but sticks, and stones, and dust; the monotony relieved only by the noise of the gulgul careering on the wings of the whirlwind....

“The presence of water brought down on the surface from the hills, together with the vast groves of trees to be planted, causes a change. The latter rains of June will be found to fall, giving a second season――a never-ending succession of crops. The fulfilment of the Prophecies will commence taking place――when the ploughman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed....

“The advance of the rolling sand-hills, which is now overwhelming the fairest of the maritime plains, may now be arrested. The rich ground between Gaza and Ascalon, which the sand has swallowed up, must again be recovered. This can easily be effected, by the planting of _coniferæ_ along the sea coast, as has been done already at Beyrout.... If we examine the Jordan valley, we find even greater changes can be effected: it can be made far more fertile than it ever was....

“The whole valley, however, may be made one vast garden, not merely by rebuilding the great aqueducts, remains of which still exist, and by means of which the great cities were watered, but by means of the Jordan river itself. The Jordan, out of Tiberias, falls ten feet to the mile, or 600 feet in sixty miles.... The waters of the Jordan might be brought out of Tiberias in aqueducts falling one foot to the mile, and thus be brought over the great plain of Basan and of Jericho, and be made to irrigate all the lands which the streams have not touched. At the same time, the streams themselves will have increased exceedingly from the development of the country in the high lands.

“The country can thus be transformed.”¹

¹ The Land of Promise; or, Turkey’s Guarantee. By Charles Warren. London: George Bell and Sons, York Street, Covent Garden. 1875. (8º. 24 _pp._ in printed wrapper) _pp._ 5‒6, 8, 14‒20.

2. _The Rev. James Neil on the Colonization Movement_

“At a moment when all eyes are turned to the East, it cannot be unimportant to learn that, after the slumber of ages, Palestine is awakening to new life, and Israel are actually returning to its shores in such numbers, and at the same time in such a way as they have never been known to do, or could have done, since their formal banishment by the Emperor Hadrian, in the year A.D. 135. Many Jews, it is true, driven ruthlessly out of Spain in 1492, found a home in the Holy Land. To go still further back, the celebrated Hebrew traveller, Benjamin of Tudela, tells us in the twelfth century that he found considerable numbers residing in the various towns of Palestine which he visited――descendants, perhaps, amongst others, of some of the 30,000 who joined the arms of Chosroes the Persian in his capture of Jerusalem, A.D. 616, or even of the Jews whom Julian the Apostate restored, A.D. 363, when he vainly endeavoured to discredit Christianity by rebuilding the Temple. But there is this all-important difference between what happened in the case of those who then returned, and those who are now flocking back to the land of their forefathers. While in the former instances, whether under Pagan, Christian, or Moslem masters, they were, as all history shows, equally the subjects of extortion, oppression and contumely: now they are beginning to hold a position of comfort, independence, and power. This remarkable change is in itself significant, and the whole movement should surely be watched by the student of prophecy with eager and expectant attitude....

“... The feeling everywhere seems abroad that the time has at last arrived to restore the desolations of Zion, and to rebuild the waste places of the land of Israel. The very existence of ‘The Syrian and Palestine Colonisation Society,’ which is about a year old, constitutes a striking expression of such a sentiment. This society, according to its prospectus, has ‘been formed to promote the Colonisation of Syria and Palestine and the neighbouring countries by persons of good character, whether Christians or Jews. ’ This it proposes to effect by obtaining information for intending settlers, and making arrangements for their transport and reception; by assisting approved applicants with advances; and by making arrangements for the purchase of land by the emigrants, or securing suitable tracts of Government waste lands, under certain guarantees; and by exerting themselves to improve the communications. Having mentioned this association, let me plainly say, from an intimate experience of this matter, that there are at present a variety of reasons why emigration to Palestine by English people cannot possibly be undertaken with any hope of success, in the same way as emigrants to the United States or to a British Colony. In the first place, the heat of the plains is too great to admit of their labouring during summer with their own hands. The German colonists in attempting this have suffered a fearful mortality. Again, to employ Arab labour to advantage, and to hold any dealings with the people, the peculiar manners and customs of the East must be known, and colloquial Arabic to some extent be mastered. But, above all, the want of thorough protection to life and property so long as Palestine remains in Ottoman hands is greatly against any emigration scheme that does not include European government for the whole colony. Hence the evident wisdom in such a case of the plan put forth by Captain Charles Warren, R.E., in a pamphlet, published last year, entitled ‘_The Land of Promise, or Turkey’s Guarantee_.’ This officer, who has an intimate acquaintance with Syria, derived from his able work there on behalf of the Palestine Exploration Fund, proposes that, if only as a solution of the pecuniary embarrassments of the Porte, Palestine should be handed over to a company similar to the old East India Company, to be farmed and governed by such an association for a period of twenty years. He suggests that such a Company should pay to Turkey its present revenues, and to the creditors of Turkey a proportion of the interest due to them, taking for itself six per cent. on its capital and expending the remaining revenue in improving the country. What he considers the ultimate future of the land we learn from his own words. ‘Let this’ (the above arrangement), he says, ‘be done with the avowed intention of gradually introducing the Jew, pure and simple, who is eventually to occupy and govern this country.... Concerning what that settlement is in part to be, I can profess no doubt, because I feel none. It is written over and over again in the Word of God.... Israel are to return to their own land. This event, in its incipient stage, I have shown to be now actually taking place. That which is yet to be looked for is the public recognition of the fact, together with the restoration, in whole or part, of Jewish national life, under the protection of some one or more of the Great Powers....’”¹

¹ Palestine Re-Peopled; or, Scattered Israel’s Gathering. A Sign of the Times. By the Rev. James Neil, B.A.... Third Edition, Revised. London.... 1877. _pp._ v.‒vi. and 34‒37.

3. _Colonel C. R. Conder on Palestinian Colonization_

The greatest authority on Palestine in our generation, Claude Reignier Conder, wrote:――

“It has always seemed to me that the future element of prosperous colonisation is to be found among the Jews of Eastern Europe. The thrift and energy of the race are not their only qualifications. Those who mean to thrive in Palestine must not only be prepared to work on the land, but they must be accustomed to the harder conditions of existence which are common in uncivilised countries, and almost unknown in the west. It is true that they will have to encounter the evils due to bad government and corruption, which are mitigated by civilisation; but if the accounts received from America are credible it is doubtful if these evils are less apparent in South America than they are in Turkish dominions. A people which has not only been able to live, but which has prospered more than the native born population, under Russian tyranny, will not find it difficult to prosper as subjects of the Sultan. A people which has lived under one form of Oriental despotism will be less discouraged by another similar condition than Europeans would be. It is from the Oriental, Jewish, agricultural class, expelled from Russia for their religion, that the colonists most naturally fitted for agriculture in Syria may evidently be drawn.

“I have often thought that the words of that famous passage in the Law, which predicts the future of Israel, must have come home with a sad and overwhelming force to the Jews in Russia during the last few years:

“‘And among these Goim shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest, and thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night; and shalt have none assurance of thy life. In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even; and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning; for the fear of thy heart wherewith thou shalt fear; and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.’

“But what is the other picture which the Law presents of Israel in its own land? ‘Blessed shalt thou be in basket and in store.’

“The proposal so to settle agriculturists, as freeholders tilling their own lands, is in accord with the general tendency of all enlightened statesmanship of the present age. We have too many artisans starved by competition, and too few tillers of the earth. Whether is it better for a man to sell penny toys in the streets of a foggy metropolis, or to till the red corn lands, and make food for himself, for his wife and for his children, for the citizens beyond the seas? Even if the whole of Palestine east of Jordan were covered with cornfields and vineyards, with mulberry and fig gardens, with cotton and maize, and pot herbs, and fruit orchards, there would not be too much produce useful to man. There would be markets in which the growers could compete with ease; and towns would grow up, where manufactories of silk and cotton might arise. There would be rice and indigo grown in the Jordan Valley, where now there are only flowers, and there would be petroleum and bitumen, and other minerals, to be worked near the Dead Sea shores. There would in short be a return of the old prosperity, which once covered this country with great Roman cities, and a prosperity yet greater because of the facilities offered by modern science.

“If then I were asked for advice on this subject I would say: Buy all the land you can get at moderate prices in Bashan and in Northern Gilead, and buy it soon, for the price will go up. Promote as far as possible the making of a railway, which is practicable, and which will bring this region within the pale of civilization. Send out as many fit men as you can, to till the land; and send their wives and children after them. They will be happy, and, if they work, they will be rich. The difficulties are less than those to be expected elsewhere, and the advantages are greater. The movement is not artificial, not merely due to religious sentiment, or to visionary philanthropy. It is a natural and healthy one, which ought to be encouraged, by giving power and money to the organization which seeks to aid it, and to control its direction in a wise course. The case has been laid before you fairly, and the details and precedents have been sufficiently studied. The experience of ten years will be of high value; and the consent of the Sultan, whose country it is, has been gained, both to the construction of a very important line of railway, and to the settlement of Jews, willing to abide by the law of that land as they have obeyed the much more tyrannical laws of the Czar.

“I confidently expect therefore, within a few more years, to see prosperity increasing in Palestine, and the empty lands filling up with an industrious population. And if this be so the Jewish people will have reason to remember with gratitude the name of Baron Rothschild as a generous benefactor, and the Society of the Chovevi Zion, as an organisation which undertook a very important work at a time when help was sorely needed.”¹

¹ Eastern Palestine. A Lecture delivered for the Western Tent of the Chovevi Zion Association. By Claude Reignier Conder ... Chovevi Zion Association.... 1892. (8º. 36 _pp._ in printed wrapper) _pp._ 5‒6 and 35‒36.

4. _Sir John William Dawson on the Future of Palestine_

Sir John William Dawson, Professor of Natural History at Montreal University, the worthy disciple of Lyell and Darwin, in a description of the Holy Land, writes:――

“From the higher parts of Jaffa one may obtain a good idea of the physical characters of the maritime plain of Southern Palestine. Along the shore stretch banks and dunes of yellow sand, contrasting strongly with the deep blue of the sea, and shading off on the east into the verdure of the plain. Near Jaffa this is covered with orange orchards, laden in February with golden fruit of immense size, and which forms one of the most important exports of the place. To the south the plain spreads into the fertile flats of ancient Philistia, interspersed in the distance with patches of sand, the advanced guards of the great Arabian desert. To the north it constitutes the plain of Sharon, celebrated in Hebrew song, and extends for fifty miles to where Mount Carmel projects its high rocky front into the sea. On the inland side, the plain is bounded first by the rolling foot-hills of the Judean range, the Shephelah or low country ... and then by the hill country proper, which, clothed in blue and purple, forms a continuous range, limiting the view eastward from Jaffa....

“The maritime plain was also a granary ... and it still produces much wheat and barley, though large portions of it are neglected and untilled, and the culture carried on is by means of implements as simple and primitive as they could have been in the days of Abraham. In February one found it gay with the beautiful crimson anemone (A. coronaria), which may have been the poetical ‘Rose of Sharon,’ while a little yellowish-white iris represented the ‘lily of the valley’ of Solomon’s Song....

“... Along the shores of the Dead Sea there are springs which produce petroleum; and this when hardened becomes Asphalt.

“Now the valley of the Dead Sea is an ‘oil district,’ and from the incidental mention of its slimepits, or literally asphalt pits, in Genesis xiv., was apparently more productive in mineral pitch in ancient times. It is interesting in connection with this to notice that Conder found layers of asphalt in the mound which marks the site of ancient Jericho, showing that the substance was used in primitive times for roofs and floors, or as a cement to protect brick structures from damp; and it is well known that petroleum exudes from the rocks both on the sides and in the bottom of the Dead Sea, and, being hardened by evaporation and oxidation, forms the asphaltum referred to by so many travellers.

“... Palestine, to the ordinary traveller, appears, especially in the drought of summer, a bare and barren country. Yet the climate and rainfall of Palestine, with the chemical quality of its rocks and soils, rich in lime, alkalies, and phosphates, render it productive to a degree which cannot be measured by our more northern lands. Its plains, though limited in extent and often stony, have very fertile soil. The olive, the vine, and the fig-tree will grow and yield their valuable fruit in abundance on rocky hills which at first sight appear barren and worthless. Whenever culture has been undertaken with skill and vigour, it has been well rewarded. In the olden times the Tirosh (often incorrectly translated ‘wine’), as the Hebrews called the fruit of their hill orchards and vineyards, was one of the main sources of wealth; and the vineyards, with their vines trailing over the warm rocks and clothing the ground with their leaves and fruit, realize the prophetic description of hills running with the grape juice, and of a land flowing with milk and honey, if by the latter we understand the ‘dibs’ or syrup of the grape. In Palestine a few olive-trees on a rocky hill, that in colder climates would be worthless, may maintain a family. There is also an abundance of nutritious pasturage, more especially for sheep and goats, all the year round, on the limestone hills....

“Palestine must originally have been a well-wooded country, and its forests are mentioned in the historical books of the Bible; but they have for the most part perished, and this had tended to make the climate more arid. The wild hill-sides are, however, often covered with an exuberant growth of bushes and young trees, which, if permitted to grow, or if replaced by cultivated trees, would soon clothe the land with verdure, and tend to produce a more abundant summer rainfall. With just laws, well administered, there is nothing to prevent Palestine from becoming as wealthy and populous as we learn from the Bible it was in the days of the Jewish kings, and it seems to have been at a later time under the Roman government....

“In Palestine, ... the country is gay with flowers, especially in early spring, and the conspicuous objects of culture are the vine and the olive. Even in the plains, cultivated fields are few, and much is merely wild pasture. The palm-tree is rare, though it still grows in the plain of Jericho and the sheltered valleys throughout the country, yielding dates smaller than those of Egypt, but of very pleasant flavour....

“That the future of these old lands may be more important than their present, it requires little penetration to see; and the old Book, whose history of these lands in the past we have been considering, has something to say of their future as well. Whatever belief men may repose in prophecy, they cannot doubt that the word of God has committed itself to certain foreshadowings of the future; and though some of these are shrouded in a symbolism to which varied interpretations have been given, others are sufficiently plain....

“We know, however, that physically these lands are still young, and capable of greater things than those of the past, and we may content ourselves with repeating the inspired words of an older Jewish prophet:――

‘For the Lord will comfort Zion: He will comfort all her waste places, And will make her wilderness like Eden, And her desert like the garden of the Lord: Joy and gladness shall be found therein, Thanksgiving and the voice of melody.’ Isaiah li. 3.

“The Holy Land is a fine tract of country well defined by natural boundaries, extending from the shore of the Mediterranean to the Syrian desert. It is a compact district, distinct and complete in itself, enclosed by mountain and sea, and consequently offering great facilities of defence against invasion. It has its highlands and its lowlands, its hills and its valleys, its streams and its lakes, its hot springs and its cold springs, a fine sea coast broken by bold promontories, cliffs towering above, beaches spreading out below, and is replete with all the capabilities essential for civilized life. The Holy Land is rich in vegetation, from the time-honoured ‘cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop on the wall. ’ Groves of olive and mulberry trees, vineyards of grapes of extraordinary size and richness, interspersed with fields of golden grain, with magnificent hedges of the cactus almost reaching the height of trees; the sycamore with its thickness of foliage――these, and more can be enumerated in a brief outline, are there for the endowment and adornment of the Holy Land. Nevertheless, the wealth of nature is in a great measure of a passing character. The sloping terraces of the hills, made fertile by means of artificial irrigation, and now deprived of the help of the tending hand of man, no longer display that fruitful aspect which was formerly their glory. The land mourns under its present masters. The tillers of the soil do not even sow in tears to reap in joy. With listless fatalism they cast into the ground the seeds of a harvest which they know, as they watch it come into being, shall minister mostly, not to their wants or wealth, but to the greed of unrighteous local administration. And, wherever these people are crowded together in their miserable villages, all is mud, slum, penury, depression, chaos and picturesque misery. A goodly land, the almond tree white in bloom, orange and olive, everywhere lilies, the scarlet anemone; but no system, no industry, no skill, no capital. No nation has been able to establish itself as a nation, in Palestine, up to this day, no national union, and no national spirit have prevailed there. The motley, impoverished tribes which have occupied it, have held it as mere tenants at will, temporary landowners, evidently waiting for those entitled to the permanent possession of the soil.”¹

¹ Modern Science in Bible Lands. By Sir John William Dawson, G.M.G., LL.D., F.R.S., F.G. S., etc.... London: ... MDCCCLXXXVIII. _pp._ 449‒450, 487, 522, 524, 527, 533, 536.