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Chosen no: R-5107 a, from: 1912 Year. |
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Views From The Watch Tower
ZIONISM FAVORED BY TURKEY
PALESTINE LIFTS up its head with hope. The new
Governor of Jerusalem has recently made a most sympathetic pronouncement. It is
believed that he voices the sentiment of the Turkish Government. Everywhere the
Pacha, Muhdi Bey, is enthusiastically received by the Jewish colonists. The
principal of these, Richon-le-Zion, gave a gala dinner in the Pacha's honor. At
it the colonists expressed unswerving fidelity of the Jews to the Ottoman
Constitutional Government.
The Governor made quite a lengthy speech, the
substance of which is reported as follows:
"Gentlemen, allow me first of all to thank
you for the hearty reception you have accorded me.
"You have undoubtedly heard from both
people and press abroad that our Government objects to Zionism. This is
incorrect. We, Ottomans, know the Jews too well to suspect them of disloyalty.
"We know that the Jews do not come to Palestine for mere
political reasons. It is the holy associations connected with this land that
act magnetically upon them; therefore our Ottoman Government has no reason to
oppose Zionism.
"History proves that Turkey has
always welcomed the Jews in times of persecution and distress, and we have
embraced with open arms the exiles from Judae-phobian countries.
"We rejoice to see the wonderful progress
you have made in Palestine
during the few years of your indefatigable labors, and you are this day a model
for the Arab villagers around you. You are an object lesson to your native
neighbors, who can neither read nor write, that they may see the great
possibilities of the land. I therefore lay before you the following
proposition:
THE GOVERNMENTAL PROPOSAL
"In order that your life and property may
be placed beyond jeopardy, it is your bounden duty to establish yourselves on a
firm basis, and this is what you should do.
"Choose from among yourselves a municipal
head, whose appointment will be ratified by the Government, to administer
justice and execute judgment according to the rules and regulations of the
Ottoman provinces.
"You will have to appoint guards and
gendarmes, whose names will be registered by the local government, which will
provide them with uniforms and all necessary accoutrements and invest them with
authority.
"You must also install telephonic
communication between colony and colony, village and village, so that any
attack or outrage may at once be notified at headquarters and the marauders be
apprehended and punished.
"I know there are unlimited possibilities
in this land, but we are unfortunately still handicapped. I trust, however,
that little by little the goal will be reached, to the great benefit of the
country.
"For my part, I will try to put you in
possession of the sandhills bordering on the seashore and give you legal
title-deeds for the same.
"A part of it I will allot you for a
capacious Government
Building which will serve
as your central administrative premises. "Brethren and kinsmen, give
your helping hands to the Government, and the Government, on her part,
will aid you on to further progress."
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"THY KINGDOM COME"!
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The following from a worldly standpoint sticks
closely to the predictions of the Bible, hence we reproduce them from Woman's
World:--
JUST A FEW GROWING PAINS.
"Coal strikes in England
and America--revolution in Mexico--anarchy in China--Italy at the throat of Turkey --woman
clamoring for the vote!
"What of it? There's no cause to be
pessimistic-- nothing's really the matter with the world--just growing pains!
"Progress has set for herself a sudden and
terrific pace. The earth has been spinning faster in the last twenty years than
it ever before whirled. Naturally, there's a bit of displacement in spots, but
nothing to hurt.
"We can't very well apply electricity to a
thousand uses, go snooping among the clouds, universalize education, introduce
penny journalism, and give science a free rein without some trivial
consequences.
"Old viewpoints are sure to shift, old
creeds must give way to new ideals, society is bound to readjust its divisions.
"The ancient molds of thought and
economics, religion and government, are splitting. Our eyes see truths which
our ancestors could not behold and by their light we perceive their errors and their inadequacies.
"The greatest revolutions that have ever
swept the universe will break within the coming hundred years.
"Before this century is closed, the last
king shall have lost his throne, the last battleship shall be scrapped, the
last army shall have junked its guns. East and West shall [R5107 : page 304] meet in a thousand common
causes and the Five Races join hands in brotherhood.
"Perfected wireless telephony and
telephotography, mile-a-second trains and airships will condense the seas and
continents into ponds and back lots.
"Africa will become a week-end resort for
the New Yorker, and the Canadian farmer will press a button, lift his receiver
and exchange crop gossip with his son in Siberia.
"Pain will be banished. Surgery will have
accomplished the relief of insanity and blindness. Cancer, tuberculosis,
paralysis, will be as easily cured as sprains and lumbago.
"There will be no waste in food nor in
land. The air will yield its wealth of nitrates to the condensers and every
arable acre will luxuriate with vegetation.
"The stored heat of the sun will furnish
power and warmth for all humanity. Plagues and pests will disappear.
"Eugenics will regulate society; men and
women will mate by definite laws; efficient organization will check economic spendthriftry
and eradicate poverty; engineering will solve the problems of competent
housing, ventilation and sunlight; the standardization of health and of welfare
will extirpate prostitution and crime.
"A dream? Not a bit of it!
"A far-fetched vision? You are wrong!
"No imagination can pierce the horizons
that cloak the tomorrow from our sight.
"The farthest-flung optimism can only
estimate a fragment of man's coming glories. How can you sneer!
"Turn back and view the fifty years behind
you. What prophet in your father's youth would have dared proclaim the many
magics of today?
"Strikes, revolts and wars are but chips
that fly beneath the chisel of progress.
"There
will be many wars, mobs will rage, battles will wage, tyranny will clutch with
strangling fingers, bigotry will plot, avarice will scheme--but to what will
these avail?"
W.T.
R-5107a : page 303 - 1912r.