The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-07-12

ern neatness. Its administration is
 carried on by town council elected by it's inhabitants and it, along wiIh the Jewish colony near Haifa, is very favorably known throughout Pales-
 tine. Its council, or vaad, is elected annually by a general assembly com
 posed of land owners as well as those who, without owning land. are ordin arily resident in the colony and have paid taxes for two years. Both mon and women vote. The council, when | elected, supervises the quality of bread sold by the bakers. controls the san l itary conditions of the meat supply, regulates the colony's water supply. l supervises the health of the colonys 1 live stock and assesses taxes Bach | elors are taxed and the colony doctor and colony chemist are paid out of
 the colony funds.
 Palestinians explain the fair amount | of success which has been gained by | the Jewish colonies by the unlimited
 resources which Zionism has placed at
 their command The success they have
 obtained is beside the point in the
 eyes of Palestinians. The colonies
 would be welcomed in Palestine were they not forerunners in planned
 wave of Jews intended to buy the 1 country away from it's people | With the Moslems and Christians as i opposed to zionism, are the orthodox
 Jews, who are opposed to Zionism on religious grounds: prophecy, they say,
 is to be fulfilled by divine, not by hu-
 man, agency
 | The situation has been very tense here
 It has lately been noticeably eased how l ever, by the announcement that an al- lied commission from Paris is coming to study the near eastern situation at l first hand. At the moment of writing, l the entire situation is waiting on the l, commissions report
 1 In the meantime, it has not been eased l by the fact that three Jewish regiments i of the British army are chartered in
 Palestine. These regiments wear the six pointed star of Zionism on the sleeves
 of their tunics and their departure from Palestine would remove cause of re-
 sentiment in the hearts of Palestinians. 1 Palestinians also resent the use of the
 Hebrew tongue in British military pro- 1 clamations. With so small a percentage
 of the population requiring Hebrew, the
 practice was seized upon by the natives as an attempt on the part of the author 1 ities to make Hebrew the official lan- guage of the country.
 | Jews on the staff of the occupied enemy | territory administration of the British
 army, which is administering the country
 until Paris acts, has also been resented.
 It is in large part explained, however, | by the very great difficulty in secur- l ing English-speaking natives when the
 occupied enemy territory administration | began it's work.
 LAND TRANSFERS BY TRICK FRY | The subterfuges now in use to secure
 land options throughout Palestine by
 Zionist agents are also resented, but it ! is not unlikely that action will be taken with respect to these. Land transfers are not permitted during the temporary regime of the occupied enemy territory | admnistra tion, but Zionist agents, by i paying $50 for example, are accustomed | to persuade the owner of a desired piece
 of land to sign document promising to
 give up either his land or $250 cash when l land transfers are once more permitted.
 It is quite possible that this piece of | trickery will come to nought before long.
 Today I have had an interview with a l number of leaders of the Mohammedan- | Christian society.
 | ''If the Jews have a right to Palestine, x they told me, we Arabs have a right to Spain and the Indians have a right to New York.
 | We Arabs have been here for 50Oo years. The Jews who were not a Pales- tinian people to begin with, but who come into Judea from Arabia, have not been
 here for the last 2000 years. Today they constitute only 12iz per cent of our popu- llation and a large part of that 12h per I cent speaks our language and lives in every respect, except in respect of wor- ship as we live Do these things in idicate that the Jews have a right to Palestine?
 Haven't we Moslems respected the 1 Christians holy places? Haven't we per mitted Jewish pilgrims to flow into and out of the country with perfect freedom Is if grateful of them to return our favors | by demanding that we give up our coun- l try to them?
 Where will we go?
 We have the word of the British that | tbev came among us not as conquerors, l but as liberators We welcomed the end of the Turks and the arrival of the Brit fish until we heard of the Balfour declara- ton of November 2, 1917, which announced Londons intention of using the. British occupation of Palestine for the purpose 1 of selling up out to the Zionists. I cannot believe for one moment that this is so. l cannot believe that humanity would per nit such thing.
 If Jewish army had beaten us ir l ha tile and had taken our land away l from us bylforce of arms, we would have no word to say against Zionism. While our Jewish conquerors occupied our coun' tr, We would bow our heads and remain | silent.
 ] But it is the British who have driver out the Turks. What have the Jews done to secure our country, that wt should give it up to them? l Europe looks on us Arabs as littl' children, who have to be led by the hand I We are a little more than that, but wt do need the guidance of a foreign power y~-f<