Monday Oct 6. [6 October 1919] Sir Harry called me down to his office
after breakfast to talk to Captain Tadman their education man. He
was in the Egyptian Education Dept. and knows Capt. Bowman. They
teach Islam in their primary schools. They have as yet no central
Education Committee but they have local committees in many of the
villages and encourage them to run their own affairs. In some cases
the local committees have found half the money necessary for
reestablishing and equipping the school. They have some 12 to 15
girls' schools, 3 in Jerusalem [(El Quds esh Sherif, Yerushalayim)].
The teachers are mostly Christian women educated in the {mission}
bishop's school or other Mission schools in Jerusalem and knowing
English. A large proportion of the male teachers are Christian and
know English. Therefore the teaching of English in the primary
schools is not so difficult a problem as with us. The parents have no
objection to Christian teachers. I then saw Col. Cox who is Political
Officer under General Watson. His duties must either be few or he
must overlap a good deal with Col. Meinersthagen [i.e.
Meinertzhagen]. He is very anxious, as is Capt Tadman for fuller
information from us. I suggested that we should send our yearly
reports and other printed matter, which they jumped at. \n\nSo by
motor to the Military Governor's where I took a Kawass and walked to
the house of Radhi Beg al 'Alami, ex-Deputy. He returned from C'ple
[Istanbul (Constantinople)] 8 months ago. His son, Yusuf, is at Trinity
Hall, Cambridge, where Prof. Browne has shown him kindness. His
talk was chiefly of Zionism, which he hates and fears. He deplores
the withdrawal of the agricultural loans and looks on it as a grave blot
on our administration. He is in favour of a united Syria under an
American or a British mandate. I asked him whether it would not be
better to swallow the French mandate if a united Syria could be
achieved thereby, but he said that was too big a price to pay, Islam
was never treated fairly by the French. He did not seem to set much
store by Faisal whom he knew in C'ple, nor did he exhibit any
enthusiasm about an independent Arab government. He complained
of small tyrannies on the part of the military, for example he has lands
at Lidd [Lod (Lydda)] which have been requisitioned as an
aerodrome but no rent is paid for them. In no case is rent paid for
lands requisitioned for military purposes. He said there were not
many large land owners, most of the land was owned in small lots by
the peasants. In order to prevent their parting with all of it to the Jews
for a high price, no one should be allowed to leave himself with less
than 20 donums[?] (on less he could not live) or to sell without showing
that he had good reason for doing so. He dreaded lest the European
Jew, with his better education and greater skill should oust the Arab
everywhere. The 'Alami are closely connected by marriage with the
Bait Husaini. \n\nI next went to see the Mayor, Kadhim al Husaini. He
has been Mutaserrif at Hasa, Nasiriyah [Nasiriyah, An] and Sairt and
is the type of the well meaning and quite ineffective Turkish official.
His talk was mainly anti-Zionist - the usual thing. \n\nI went back to the
Military Governor's where I met Dr Eder, who is the representative of
the Zionists, a London Jew. Interesting man. I went to his house, after
lunching at the New Grand Hotel with Ronald Storrs, and met there
one of the leading Jews of Jerusalem, Mr Yellin. Dr Eder was the son
of a free thinker and found religion after he was grown up. He was not
taught Hebrew as a child and knows none, nor any Arabic. He looks
to the acquisition of land for the Jewish settlers in three ways: (a) by
buying from the British Administration all State lands (b) by taking up
and cultivating waste lands (c) by a law obliging owners of
cultivatable land to sell any portion that they had not put under
cultivation. Palestinian land is peculiarly well suited to the Jews. The
Jew likes a small holding which he can call absolutely his own, he
would not regard favourably the prospect of wide stretches of
irrigated plain, as in Mesopotamia, in which he would have to embark
much capital or use expensive {mechanical instruments} agricultural
machinery which he would own in combination with others. The
intensive cultivation of the terraced hill side exactly suits him and is
capable of immense development over areas where it has as yet
scarcely been begun. Dr Eder rejected the idea that Zionist progress
could be allowed to proceed slowly. It was necessary to impress
upon the Arab that the Jews were really able to effect great
improvements in the country by which the Arabs would profit also. He
saw no reason why the two civilizations should not merge completely
into one; they were already so closely akin. The Jews would be able
to bring the advantages of Western culture to the Arabs better than the
European could do it, for being an Oriental himself he would not
attempt to turn the Arabs into bad occidentals. (NB the drawback to
this theory is that the European Jew has so little sympathy with
Oriental ways and thought.) He looked to the day when a
Jewish-Arab civilization should spread from Syria to Mesopotamia.
He and his wife intend to settle here. I asked whether Jews of his
education and social status are not better off in Europe, particularly in
England. He replied that they wanted their own country, that they had
never been completely assimilated elsewhere. If he committed a
theft in London the police reports stated that a Jew named Eder had
been convicted etc. His offence became a reflection upon a race
alien to the English among whom he lived. In spite of his knowing no
Semitic language and never having lived in the East, he already felt
at home among Arabs, admired their virtues and would be content to
be as they. \n\nI asked whether it were true that the Zionists did not
consider that the Administration here had fulfilled the spirit of Mr
Balfour's pledge. He said it was. In the first place the promised use
of the Hebrew language, which the Administration had agreed to
place with English and Arabic for official purposes, had left much to
be desired. Tax collection receipts, even proclamations had
occasionally been issued in English and Arabic only and the Zionists
had been obliged to protest before the Hebrew version was added.
The Jews were now holding out to have all notices from the
Municipality in Hebrew as well as in the other 2 tongues. The C.A. had
agreed but the Municipality had so far refused to comply. They would
be obliged to do so. The Jews had only 2 members out of 12 or 14 on
the Municipal body who are all appointed by the Administration not
elected. They had not so far asked for more adequate
representation. At Jaffa [Tel Aviv-Yafo (Joppa)] the proportion is
better. Further, there were complaints on the economic side. A
German factory at Jaffa, a German hotel at Jaffa and an Armenian
hotel at Jerusalem, all of which had been requisitioned by the army,
were to be disposed of and the Jews had wished to acquire them. In
all cases they had been prevented when the bargain was practically
completed - the Armenian hotel had been sold to another bidder at a
smaller price that that offered by the Jews. With regard to Crown
Lands, the Jews had practically been prevented from coming forward
as lessees by an order that they could only be leased to men of
Palestinian birth and that preference should be given to the former
lessees. The Zionists feared that the latter proviso would give the
lessee some vested right which he would bring into play when the
Jews attempted to purchase Crown Lands. All these measures Dr
Eder attributed to Col. Gabriel whose anti-Zionist prejudices were well
known. I asked him what were his views as to the agricultural loans
which have now been stopped. He said there would have been no
objection to them if (a) they had not been paid through the
Anglo-Egyptian bank which Zionists did not wish should get a footing
here. They are very jealous of any measure which introduces
Egyptian influence. (b) if the Jews had been able to participate in
them. They were almost precluded from doing so by the order that
loans should only be granted to land owners who could satisfactorily
establish their title. This the Jews were usually unable to do. Under
Ottoman law no Jew could hold land unless he had been born in
Palestine; a non-Palestinian Jew would therefore hold his land under
the name of a Palestinian Jew and this introduced great confusion of
titles. (Dr Eder did not mention that indigent Jewish landlords were not
really in need of the agricultural loans because they could get loans
through the Anglo Jewish bank.) He said further that Moslem titles
were very uncertain and he feared that it would be difficult to dispute
the faulty title deeds of owners who had been granted agricultural
loans by us. Nevertheless he recognized that under the present
circumstances the loans were useful and thought that the matter could
be arranged to the satisfaction of Zionists and Moslems alike.
\n\nBoth he and Mr Yellin urged that the Jews were asking for very
little. The Arabs had got Syria and Mesopotamia, they might well
spare Palestine to the Jew. Mr Yellin was born here. His mother
came from Baghdad and his father from C'ple. He is on terms of
friendly intimacy with the Moslem notables, Husainis, 'Alamahs,
Khalidis etc and the present tension has not affected his personal
relations with them. He is a mild looking old man. He thinks the bark
of the Arabs is worse than their bite and feels sure that they will accept
the fait accompli. If a more definite Zionist policy had been adopted
by our administration immediately after the occupation, the Arabs,
delighted to be rid of Turkish misrule, would have taken it with
scarcely a murmur. The talk of {Moslem} a united Syria which is so
much on the lips of Moslems here is seldom heard at Damascus
[Dimashq (Esh Sham, Damas)]. The Arab State cares little or nothing
about Palestine. \n\nAfter this talk I walked along the N.E. bit of the city
wall with Ronald Storrs. He has opened up this stretch of the chemin
de ronde. So back to the Mt of Olives.