The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1915-05-13
PALESTINE A NEUTRAL LAND.
Lord Bryce Urges That 1t BE Pre-
served as a Shrine.

Dee0 growing Ill StISuStu sihSe VIZ
entry of Turkey into the war, and
which would take away Palestine
from the dominion of the Ottoman,
and conserve and develop it as
shrine and museum for mankind,
lends fresh interest to the observa-
ton upon this center Of world PHI
grimage, recently prepared by James
Bryce, former British ambassador to
the United States, for the National
Geographic Society. That Palestine,
after all, would not be so great
reservation for mankind, in point OF
area, appears in the comments o.
Lord Bryce upon its size:
Palestine is tiny little country.
Though the travellers handbooks pre-
pare him to find it small, it surprises
him by being smaller than he expect
ed, Taking it as the region between
the Mediterranean on the west and
the Jordan and the Dead sea on the
east, from. the spurs of Lebanon and
Hermon on the north to the desert OF
Beersheba on the south, it is only ITO
miles long and from 80 to 60 broad
that is to say, it is smaller than New
Jersey, whose area is 1900 square
miles.
''Of this region large parts did not
really belong to Israel. Israel had,
in fact. little more than the hill coun-
try, which lay between the Jordan on
the east and the maritime plain on
the west. King David, in the days
of his power, looked down from the
hill cities of Benjamin, just north OF
Jerusalem, upon Philistine enemies
only 25 miles off, on the one side.
and looked across the Jordan to Moa-
bite enemies about as far off, on the
other.
4 Nearly all the events in the his
tory of, Israel that are recorded in
the Old Testament happened within
a territory no bigger than the State
of Connecticut, whose area is 4,SOO
square miles; and into hardly any
other country has there been crowd
ed from the days of Abraham till our
own time so much nistory-that is
to say. so many events that have been
recorded and deserve to be recorded
in the annals of mankind
Nor is the Palestine of today so
beautiful or so rich country, as was
painted by the Jews just emerging
from the barren, comfortless desert.
Its centuries of misgovernment and
warfare have nightly assisted its
somewhat stepmotherly nature in
crushing out development, according
to Lord Bryce; wherefore the present
day proposal that this land at last be
given rest and opportunity by neu-
tralizing it and making it the care Of
all the nations is overdue. Palestine
is a land of ancient strife and sell
dom-interrupted slaughter, Lord
Bryce explains. and more than IA
centuries of sad misrule have done
their fatal work upon its physical ap-
pearance.
Palestine is country poor in any
natural resources. There are prac-
tically no minerals, no coal, no iron,
no copper, no silver, though recently
some oil wells have been discovered
in the Jordan valley. Neither are
there any large forests, and though
the land may have been better wood
ed in the days of Joshua than it is
now, there is little reason to think
that the. woods were of trees suf-
ficientiy large to constitute source
of wealth. A comparatively small
area is fit for tillage.
Such wealth as the country has
consists in its pastures, and the ex-
preston a land flowing in milk and
honey appropriately describes the
best it has to offer, for sheep and
goats can thrive on the thin herbage
that covers the hills, and the rumer-
GUS aromatic plants furnish plenty
of excellent food for bees; but it is
nearly all thin pasture, for the land
is dry and the soil mostly shallow.
The sheep and goats vastly outnum-
Der the oxen"
Lord Bryce contrasts the beauty of
Greece and Palestine. In both lands,
he says. the traveller finds charm
everywhere because Of the traditions
and history that hallow them. In
rpactical reality, however, a great
part of Greece is painfully dry and
bare, and there is little striking beau
ty TO be found in the Holy Land. The
reverence and piety for spots hallow-
ed by religious associations which
the pilgrim brings to the places
throug oh which he WanderS in PaleS-