Norwich bulletin., 1919-04-17
IN THE DAYS NEWS
PALESTINE

Of peculiar timeliness, because of widespread American interest in the future of Palestine, is a communica- ton to the National Geographic So- city from Viscount James Bryce, for mer British Ambassador to the Unit ed States
 The historic Holy Land, released rom deadly Moslem domination, may take its place among the prosperous ana even populous" civilized states of today, he states. if administered by "a government which should give honest administration, repress brigandage, diff fuse education. irrigate the now deso- late, because sum- n-scorched. valley of the lower Jordan by water drawn from the upper course of the river
 A part of Viscount Bryce's com
 municatior follows:
 Palestine is a tiny little country. Though the travellers handbooks pre- pare him to find it small, it surprises Tim by being smaller than he expect ed. Taking it as the region between | the Mediterranean on the west and l the Jordan and Dead Sea on the east, from the spurs of Lebanon and Her l mon on the north to the desert at
 Beersheba on the south, it is only l1o miles long and from 50 to 60 i broad-that is to say. it is smaller ] than New Jersey.
 Of this region large parts did not
 really belong to ancient Israel Their hold on the southern and northern dis 1 tricts was but slight, while in the
 southwest wide and rich plain along the Mediterranean was occupied by the warlike Philistines, who were i sometimes more than match for the Hebrew armies. Israel had, in fact. little more than the hill country, 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 oi Benjamin. just north of Jersualem upon Philistine enemies only 25 miles
 off, on the one side. and looked across
 the Jordan to Moabite enemies about as far off,on the other.
 Nearly all the events in the his
 tory of Israel that are recorded il the Old Testament happened within {
 terstory no bigger than the State of Connecticut whose area is 4,90t | squrae miles; and into hardly any
 other country has there been crowded , from the days of Abraham till our owl
 so much history-that is to say, SC many events that have been recorded , and desrve to be recorded in the an , nals of mankind.
 Nor is it only that Palestine il : really small country. The travele f constantly feels as he moves abou , that it is a small country. From tn
 heights a few miles north of Jerusa , lem he sees. looking northward, far [ off summit carrying snow for eigh
 months in the year. It is HermoI : nearly 10000 feet high-Hermon, who's
 fountains feed the rivers of Damascus F But Hermon is outside the territor
 of Israel altogether, standing in tn
 land of the Syrians; so, too. it is 0 d Lebanon. We are apt to think of tha = mountain mass as within the country e because it also is frequently mention c ed in the Psalms and the Prophets = but the two ranges of Lebanon als e rise beyond the frontiers of Isreal, ly Il ing between the Syrians of Damascu : and the Phoenicians of the West. ,l Perhaps it is because the maps frol e which children used to learn Bibl l, geography were on a large scale the T most of us have failed to realize ho
 narrow were the limits within whic e took place all those great doings ths II fill the books of Samuel and King l. Just in the same way the classic;
 scholar who visits Greece is surprise :. to find that so small a territory sui ',e feed for so many striking incident ,i and for the careers of so many fan '' ous men,"