JEWS ARE TURNING PALESTINE INTO MODERN CIVILIZED STATE

Noted Englishman Condemns Criticisms of Present Colonization of Holy Land and Lauds Work Done by Immigrants.

BY COMMANDER THE HON. J. M. KENWORTHY, Formerly Assistant Chief of Staff, Gibraltar, Admiralty, War Staff, London, and Labor Member of Parliament.

JEWS ARE TURNING PALESTINE INTO MODERN CIVILIZED STATE — Evening Star, 5 June 1927 — Evening Star · 5 June 1927

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Transcribed from the clipping

There is still some misapprehension among sections of American public opinion about the situation in Palestine and the work of the Zionists in the Holy Land. As a non-Jew who was in Palestine in December, 1926, I may be able to remove some of these misapprehensions. While there I traversed the whole country from Dan to Beersheba and I crossed into Transjordania as well.

I met the leaders of every section of the population and visited every important center. I am in a position to draw a contrast, as 18 years ago, while serving as a naval officer in the British Mediterranean fleet, I had an opportunity of seeing the country under Turkish rule.

To put the matter briefly, Palestine is being made into a modern civilized state with progressive Western ideas in the midst of a vast area neglected for centuries under Moslem rule. The effect of the Palestine example alone on the surrounding countries would make it worth while. There is no unrest among the mass of the Arab population.

Just after the armistice the Arab farmers were told by the political agitators that their land would be taken from them, and they were naturally dissatisfied. They have been reassured on this point and, further, appreciate the direct benefits they have received from the Jewish colonization of the country and the extra trade and employment resulting from this colonization.

The anti-Semitic agitation in Palestine is led by a handful of would-be dictators who not only want the Jews out of the country, but would eject all the Christians and Englishmen as well.

How this transcription was made

Read from the scan at 2.1x to 9x. The YEAR is printed on the page — the article’s last line is “(Copyright, 1927.)”, read at 9x, and the writer says in his second sentence that he was in Palestine in December 1926 — but the month and day of 5 June come from the hand-typed slide label alone, and nothing on the clipping names a paper or a city. THE SLIDE’S TWO IMAGES ARE SWAPPED RELATIVE TO ITS LABEL: the label names a 1948 clipping first and a 1927 one second, and this is the 1927 one. The order was corrected from the pages, which are twenty-one years apart, so there is no doubt which is which. THE SAME ARTICLE APPEARS ELSEWHERE IN THIS BATCH, three days later and under a different headline, and the two printings do not carry identical text: this one opens “There is still some misapprehension among sections of American public opinion” where the other opens “There is still misapprehension amongst sections”, and the same among/amongst difference recurs further down. The two openings were compared at magnification on both scans. Anything matching these printings on exact strings will miss the pair.

Cite this clipping

"JEWS ARE TURNING PALESTINE INTO MODERN CIVILIZED STATE," Evening Star, 5 June 1927. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1927-031. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1927-031