PALESTINE (British Mandate)
In the Promised Land
Balfour. On Nov. 2, 1917, Mr. Arthur James Balfour, British Foreign Secretary, issued a declaration on behalf of his Government: "His Majesty's Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people ... it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish com- munities in Palestine. . . ."
Last week, nearly seven and a half years later, the veteran Earl of Bal- four (Arthur James Balfour ennobled) set forth from the land of his ancestors for the Holy Land. Some days later, he arrived at Alex- andria, Egypt's greatest seaport. Thence went he to Cairo, the capi- tal, where he entered a special railway car provided by the Palestine Government and was whisked off across the Suez Canal to Palestine, land of two religions: Judaism, Christianity.* Lord Balfour went to Jerusalem, direct to Government House on the Mount of Olives. On a spur of the Mount of Olives, known as Mt. Scopus, stands the Hebrew Univer- sity which he had come to openâwhich all Zionist Jewry considers of the utmost importance in the growth of what may be called modern Is- rael. He arrived several days before the opening ceremony, was met en- thusiastically by the Jewish communities and by the Arabs with a parade of mourning and the silence of grief, a protest against the Bal- four Declaration.
He visited Jaffa (the Joppa of Biblical note), motored to its suburb Tel-Aviv, a purely Jewish town where, it is said, everybody lives by doing some one's else washing. He also went to Richon L'Zion, one of the oldest modern settlements of Jews, to Dilber and other more re- cent Jewish settlements. Everywhere the veteran Earl was received in manifest goodwill. Arabs vowed he must be a Jew to receive such welcomes and to delight in receiving them.
The Ceremony. The great day came. The University of Mount Scopus (consisting at present of a remodeled house, a copper-domed wing, an unfinished amphitheatre) was crowded by 8,000 clamoring spectators. The ancient city of Jerusalem was as festive as it could be without Arab cooperation. Jewish hawkers sold "Balfour biscuits," "Balfour keftas" (rissoles), "Balfour chocolate," which was not strange in a land which has a model village named Balfouria.
The inauguration exercises took place in the amphitheatre to which the Earl and Sir Herbert Samuel, British High Commissioner, drove from Government House. The central tribune contained many notables. Field Marshal Viscount Allenby, High Commissioner for Egypt, was there. He had been specially invited, as it was he who led the "ninth" or last crusade that delivered the Holy Land from its centuries-old Turkish domination. Others were: Dr. Chaim Weizmann, President of the World Zionist Organization; Grand Rabbis Dr. Hertz of Britain, Dr. Levy of France, Dr. Abraham Kuk, head of the Ashkenazic sect, Dr. Jacob Mead, head of the Sephardic sect. Behind, were professors of the University; to one side, were the consular representatives of foreign countries.