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present moment to be certain. It must stand in cordial relations with the new Arab Kingdom of the Hejaz to the south and the coming state of Syria to the north. It must have the good will of the leading countries that are to be responsible for the international order that is in process of creation. It will not rely upon its physical strength, for, at best, it will be small in extent. It will depend upon the sense of right and of justice on the part of those to whom world-leadership will be given.

For the rest, it will have to demonstrate its own ability to live upon its own merits and by its own labor. An indication of this ability may be seen in the development of Jewish Palestine prior to the outbreak of the war. Despite the many difficulties of Turkish opposition, of paternalism on the part of Jewish parent organizations in other parts of the world, and of inexperience, the Jewish settlements in Palestine covered some 500,000 dunams (quarter-acres) of land. Of these 62,400 consisted of plantations (orange groves, vineyards, almond and olive groves, etc.) of the value of 22,605,000 francs and producing a net income of 2,271,500 francs. Half of the remaining 437,600 dunams are devoted to cereal and vegetable farming, and the balance to villages, roads, and land still in the process of development for future occupation. The total value of the Jewish possessions in the country has been estimated at something more than 50,000,000 francs.

In order to finance all the various undertakings that made this advance possible, in the year 1903, an institution was founded under the name of the AngloPalestine Bank, an off-shoot of the Jewish Colonial Trust, which has now a paid up capital of £100,000.

Its purpose has been to issue short-term loans to colonists, merchants, and manufacturers, long-term credits and loans to coöperative loan societies. It has paid an annual dividend of 46 per cent. Nor have the cities been entirely neglected. What can be accomplished along these lines has been shown in the suburb of Tell Aviv in Jaffa. At Haifa a sort of garden city was in process of building; and even in Jerusalem the miserable squalor that was the natural consequence of Turkish mal-administration was being exchanged for streets lined with neat and trim houses in which sanitation and a certain amount of creature comfort laid the basis for a healthy spiritual reaction.

The administration of these groups gives us to a certain extent an insight into the future governance of the whole land. The basic principles upon which communal life is to be ordered are best expressed in the statement drawn up and passed at the Zionist Convention held at Pittsburgh, Pa., on June 23-30, 1918:

First. Political and civil equality irrespective of race, sex, or faith of all the inhabitants of the land.

Second. To insure in the Jewish national home in Palestine equality of opportunity, we favor a policy which, with duel regard to existing rights, shall tend to establish the ownership and control of the land and of all natural resources, and of all public utilities by the whole people. Third. All land owned or controlled by the whole people should be leased on such conditions as will insure the fullest opportunity for development and continuity of possession.

Fourth. The cooperative principle should be applied as far as feasible in the organization of all agricultural, industrial, commercial, and financial undertakings.

Fifth. The fiscal policy shall be framed so as to protect the people from the evils of land speculation and from every other form of financial oppression.

Sixth. The system of free public instruction which is to be established should embrace all grades and departments of education.

Seventh. The medium of public instruction shall be Hebrew, the national language of the Jewish people.

The honest endeavor to carry out these principles has laid the foundations for a democratic governance that is perhaps unique of its kind: it seeks to combine the utmost freedom of individual expression with a proper .regard for the good conduct of the whole community.

It is democracy in excelsis. Each colony has its council that administers its internal affairs and that represents it when matters pertaining to all the colonies are to be settled. The members of these councils are elected by all the men and the women that have lived in the colony for at least two years. Various committees assist the Council in its labors—a valuation committee to apportion the amount of taxes to be paid; an Education Committee to care for the communal schools, kindergartens and public festivals; a Committee of Public Security to see that the necessary police service is rendered, and an Arbitration Committee to settle disputes that may arise among the colonists. At the moment that the war broke out the colonists were in the act of forming a committee that was to take charge of those matters that were common to all the colonies-in a measure a Privy Council.

One would be called a facile opportunist if one believed that anything more had been done than to

point the way development must take. Measures must be laid down to insure other and non- -Jewish interests in the country, not only their full value and their complete liberty of action, but their concurrent action with what we hope will be the dominating Jewish forces there. To work out the problems, the protecting hand of some great power is urgently needed, and all indications point to Great Britain as the one that, through special circumstances and unusual equipment, is called upon to give this pioneer aid in helping the form of Judea, that has laid prostrate for so long a time, to rise once more and take its fitting place among the powers of the world.

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