INDISCH GENOOTSCHAP.
VERGADERING VAN 30 OCTOBER 1936.
Blz. 109-125.
Mediterranean Palestine, and the ways to the (ndies.
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, S-ORAVENHAOE
MARTINUS NIJHOFF 1937
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Verzocht wordt a II e voor het Indisch GenQotschap bestemde correspondentie te richten tot bet Secretariaat:
LAAN VAN MEERDERVOORT 194,
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's-GRAVENHAGE .
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VERGADERING VAN 30 OCTOBER 1936.
De .Voorzitter, prof. dr.
J.
H. Boeke, opent te 8 uur n.m. de vergadering. De notulen van de vorige bijeenkomst worden goed- gekeurd. Vervolgens spreekt hij een woord van welkom, in het bijzonder gericht tot de leden van de vereeniging Nederland- Engeland, die wel aan de uitnoodiging tot bijwoning van de te houden lezing gevolg hebben willen geven.Daarna leidt hij den spreker met enkele woorden in en wijst er daarbij op, dat deze in hooge functies het Britsche Keizerrijk in Oost Afrika, in de landen om de Middellandsche Zee en elders diende, daarom als een autoriteit ten aanzien van het door hem te behandelen onderwep is te beschouwen.
De Voorzitter verleent hierop het woord aan den heer Tracy Philip ps tot het houden van een inleiding betreffende:
Mediterranean Palestine, and the ways to the Indies.
In accepting the invitation which you have done me the honour to extend, I must confess that my thoughts dwelt first on th at part of the Mediterranean highway which was ancient Greece. There, where the great sta tue of Athena, Goddess of Wisdom, looked out across the unharvested sea and its eastern traffic, two wise proverbs were current. One of these .,/(hl"(,(~· ,1/~ yÀ(yI~Ya(:
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aimablywarned the stranger that is was unnecessary for him to bring owls to Athens - where they we re already a sacred plague. And the second,
,VfA.ff'j,·(t '7~,/,c,;NI'1 r~,r~!''T'/F''·. recalled to him that he should not imagine th~t dolphins had need of lessons in swimming.
And so it seems to me rather in the nature of a temerity and a presumption for a stranger to address a distinguished audience in the Netherlands on any part of THE WA Y TO THE INDIES with which your magnificent record there, and your daily journeyings thither by air, by land and sea - have already rendered it, in the Shakespearian phrase, "familiar as yOtlr garter". But this fa ct pre- sents for the presumptuous speaker, also a manifest advantage. For he is speaking to experts and may thus take much for granted as common knowIedge, and therefore may be permitted at once to plunge in medias res without explanatory preface, or much ado.
The basic and determining civilisations of Európe have sprung and rediated from the shores of the Intand Sea. The Mediterranean has been a fertile centre of human invention, and of human exchanges
and communications. Athens and Rome, Ty:e and Carthage, Alex- andria, Constantinople and Venice, Mediterrenean eities, have nursed and carried, eivilisations across its water.
Today the internal combustion engine, the resulting desert motor- route from" the Mediterranean to Persia and the Persian Gulf, and the conquest of the Air, have regained for it much of the prestige snatched from it by Vasco da Gama and Christopher Columbus. The Nether- lands, England and France draw also, their aerial fleets to a knot in the Eastern Meriterranean before redirecting them along their varying
aerial routes to their respective Indies.
lt is preeisely this same aerial development which is a double edged weapon. lf the f1eets of the Air have reinforced the importance of the Mediterranean, as a junction between East and West, and (over Spain and Gibraltar) to South America, they constitute at the same time a redoubtable factor which has inflicted upon it, and its users, more doubt and hesitation as to sea-borne traffic to the Indies than at any time since the opening of de Lessep's Canal.
It must be understood that my remarks represent only my own view point. They are a mere exposé of a situation and nowhere con- stitute a critieism.
I have deliberately narrowed down the various methods of trans- port, and thc multitudinous routes to the Indies, to the area of which, for England, Palestine, since the last few months (that is, since the conclusion of the Treaty with Egypt) , forms the nerve-centre and the nodal-point.
The exotic Star of India has, for Europe, always burned bright and alluringly in the eastern heavens. Herodotus, the Latins, and English Milton of the Puritans, join in ecstatic envy of "the wealth of Ormus and of Ind".
Long before the Christian era, Egypt, Palestine and Rome drew, from out the Indian Orient, ivory, apes and. peacocks, as wel) as their gold, frankincense and myrrh. The.traffic to it ebbed and f10wed along the two narrow corridors of the Red Sea and the Mediterra- nean. The latter, the Middle Sea between Europe and Africa, and between Europe and Asia, was joined by the Nile to the Red Sea (which then extended to the Bitter Lakes), over 3000 years before the time of Ferdinand de Lesseps.
Af ter occasional di su se and silting, it became strategically c10sed early in the Moslem accupation, when the eastern traffic taak again the overland Silken Way to the Orient. The aid sought by sixteenth- century-Europe from the Preste or Negus of Abyssinia, and the latter's initiatives, constitute the principal outlines of interventions in the Red Sea, south of Palestine. The Mediterranean then is only a part of the Grand Canal whose two extremities are the Red Sea Narrows of the Bab el-Mandeb (or Gate ot Lamenfations) and the Pillars of Hercules, by Gibraltar. The communicating lock, or sluice-
gate, between them is at present across the Isthmus of Suez, an internationalized waterway, guaranteed equally open to all the world in time of peace as in time of war. Nor in the Italo-Abyssinian war, this year, did England seek any alteration of the Canal Statute or to abuse in any way her position in Egypt.
Let us, meanwhile, allow our thoughts to afford us a rapid bird's- eye view round the shores from the western end of our Grand Canal which is the narrow basin of the Middle Sea. There a new feature has this year appeared. It is still in course of clarification and imprint upon the Face of Things to Come. Across the cent re and in the extreme west of the basin, two undemocratic nations-in-arms occupY privileged and cardinal positions. The central loek (Messina-Sicily- Pant-ellaria-Cap Bon), and the western wall or bastion of Spain, are in course of drastic transformation, naturally quite unmitigated by any international guarantees. This month, in a famous English news-
paper, a picture appeared of an aeroplane launched from a warship in manoevres in the North Sea. There was no human being on board the plane. It remained 3 hours in the Air. It was controlled solely by wireless. It is an unfortunate reflex ion that the material and scientific development of man kind should have so far outstripped his moral progress, and that chemical and mechanical invention is not yet pooled for the common benefit of humanity. Modern mechanical in- vention renders such transformations of more strategie importance
or general interest to those users of the Canal whose arm and hand (which feed the mouth at home) pass through this hatchway to the east. Must the arm be withdrawn lest the new loek close down on it ? Or should the other arm be stretched out by another and a more open orifice, to pass over wider waters and through safer space? The question can be as fairly posed to us as by us. There has been no misuse of privilege. That is one of the new questions which is be- ginning to con front not only England and the Netherlands, as both democratie States at home and colonial Powers in the East, but all the maritime States. Let us, in the light of this problem which we have posed to ourselves, return to our rapid and superficial survey of the Mediterranean basin.
Any wise and foreseeing policy must regard not only probabilities but also possibilities. Among the latter cannot be ignored 'the possi- oility of a direct access of Germany to the Mediterranean either ter- ritorially, or by corridor to a national enclave in a free port. Fur- thermore, what is not yet probable, but is none the less possible, is the formation of a close authoritarian entente in central Europe which would extend its influence, if not its control, from the Iimits of the territoral waters of Scandinavia to the coasts of Africa, from outer Sweden to outer Tunisia. Any such control or pressure would be more likely to be exercised on motives arising from the internal economie or political stresses on, or within, the continent of Europe.
Whereas, especially since Ottawa, the principal motives and pre- occupations of England arise, far from Europe, on the long commu- nications and in the distant units of her constituent Commonwealths.
No Englishman can, nevertheless, fail to ask himself, whethe'r his Government should not now consult the British public in full con- fidence and take up publicly a clear position as to at least three graded categories of British Articles-of-Faith which any English Government would be prepared at all costs, if by varying means, to defend - of which the first category would inevitably be the integrity of Belgium and the Netherlands.
Moving then', eastwards, round the banks of the basin of the Grand Canal, we find the Balkan Mediterranean influenced by the powerfu!
Clearing Agreements which amounted a few weeks ago to the be- ginnings of a German economie bloc.
This area can help in the supply of raw meterials which Germany lacks, can absorb in return many of the manufactured products which Germany needs, for ·her economie health, to export. The wisdom for Germany of this legitimate economie initiative is not a matter for criticicism.
Beyond the Mediterranean Balkans, in the northeastern corner, is the almost open entry of the fast-organizing Soviets. The doorkeeper of the entry is a stiII distrustful Turkey, opposed to all external ad- venture and only anxious to be strong. Along the southern shores of the Mediterranean, from the Atlantic, the picture changes. The poli- tical1y-minded leaders of Moslem-Arabic world are in a state Qf ferment towards the regaining of an independenee so relatively re- cently lost to them. Except where the two Semitic races have united in face of a common enemy, Arab hatred or jealousy of the Jew is as old as the Arab. The survival of, and conditions in, tlle mel1ah- ghetto in Arab countries is only an i1Justration of it. In proportion as democracy and jewry are distasteful to the Arab mentality, so do the regime and nationals of the Soviet and Nazism respectively appear popular and precious sticks with which to beat su eh European democracies as at present control their destinies.
Distance lends illusion and even enchantment, and plus la chanson est [oin (says the Hindu proverb) plus c'esf belle. The chanfing of the Drapeau Rouge and the Internationale in those countries consti- tutes no exception.
The attitude of the Moslem-Arab world from the Atlantic to the Persian Gulf cannat be divorced from the question of the future of Palestine and, since the conclusion of the Anglo Egyptian Treaty, the new importance of its position on the Ways to the Indies.
lt is healther that such matters of modern political evolution and of common knowledge should be c1early and frankly and openly dis-
cussed, without criticism or prejudice, by aresponsibie audience like yours, rather than that they should be confined to mere whisperings
by the pliblic endenciously or in secret and thus run the risk of causing more international misapprehension or misunderstanding.
In Palestine itselt.
The latest Arab Revolt in the Desert, the fourth in Palestine since the Great War, has been unconditionally terminated, by the Higher Arab Committee in Jerusalem, on the festive occasion of the Leilet el-Maaradj, the Moslem Ascension-Day.
Four Arab Kings had appealed to their "Sons of Palestine" to re- establish peace "relying on British good intentions".
The Committee ag reed to the proposition on the ground that "it is part of our inherited traditions to comply with the wishes of Arab Kings and Princes".
It may, however, be added in parenthesis that 80 % of the wealth and exports of Palestine consist of fruit. Roughly half of it is Arab- owned. The annal picking-season was due. Furthermore, Arab peasants and shop-keepers were nearing the end of their endurance.
The Committee however added that "the termination of the strike does not mean permanent peace; and the issue in Palestine is not local but the concern of the whole Arab race". That is the situation in Palestine today.
Pax enim (observed Spinoza) non belli privatio, sed virtus est, quae ex animi fortitudine oritur.
The principal ostensible cause of the revolts, as alleged by the Arabs, is that they consider England to have formally promised in 1 9 16 the independence of all Arab Countries in Asia in return for the aid of an Arab army to revolt against the empire of their co- religionists to which they belonged, towards the conquest of Syria which th en inc1uded Palestine. The Arabs maintain that so soon as their military alliance and substantial aid were acquired and had come into play, th at these same Arab areas of Islam were, behind their backs, contractually divided, by the British Father-of-the- compact, among the other persons of the allied Trinity.
At the revolution, the Moscow government revealed to the world the Allied Partition, and in effect renounced the Russian share in it.
But an Anglo-French Treaty (Sykes-Picot) abstracted Arab Syria for France, and the Balfour Dec1aration promised, without consul- tation with the Arabs, a National Home for Jews in Palestine which was already a National Home of the Arabs. The Jews assert thai what was thus designed, and promised, was a National Home for
Jews, and not a mere religious asylum.
The Peace Conference brought the inexorable ymni ed-din, the Day of Reckoning, when the three parties confronted each other and the two presented for payment their legitimate and conflicting ac- counts "for serviees rende red" .
Kin~ Huseyn, represented by the Sqerif Feysal, c1aimed on beh~lf
of the Arabs, an united Kingdom of the Arabs of Asia, to be held with the Caliphate of Islam and, on the other si de, the Jews rede- manded the realization of the secular dream of the Promised Land.
Successive British governments have either denied, or been embar- rassed by ihe consciousness of the contradiction of, the promises emanating from watertight compartments of their specialized war-
time counsellors such as Mac Mahon, Sir Mark Sykes in London, Lawrence in Arabia, and the Arab Bureau in Cairo. After each strike or revolt, conscientious attempts have been made by British Com- missions to find formulae to ménager Ie chou et la chèvre, while British public opinion has never been able quite to decide which is the cabbage and which is the goat. From year to year, Jew and Arab attract very varying sympathies from the English man-in-the- street, as their stocks and shares as "under-dogs" go up and down on the political Bourse mor·e incromprehensibly to him than even financial "buns and bears". The last revolt has seemed to many to be an indication that the cabbage is on strike against the goat, by becoming a cactus, which will seed, reproduce itself, and be more thorny and difficult to grasp than the proverbial nettle; or that, on the stage of Palestine, a theatrical piece is being played in which vaguely Jewish Slavs and Germans in the plight or guise of religious refugees are advancing on and gathering round the castte of Pales- tine which commands the cross->roads to the Indies, much as in Shakespeare "Birnam wood was come to Dunsinane".
Meanwhile, the inability of the British Government to harmonize the incompatible and not unfounded claims on them of Jew and Arab, has led to four "strikes" or revolts on the Eastern Mediterranean;
repercussions in Syria; and passionate, if ephemeral, solidarity troughout the self-conscious Arab world from the Atlantic to the Persian Gulf. Recent events in Palestine, as disseminated in news, have had a far more disturbing effect in Asia and Africa than even the f1ight of the Negus, naively regarded as the ally of England. The conquest of Abyssinia, "despite England and France", has in the Arabized world been an occasion rather than a reason for widespread feeling against what is often regarded by Arabs as the )ewish control (through )ewish finance, newspapers and polities) of democratic imperialisms in decadence. They chiefly see, in the European, an irreligious rationalism, selfish individualism and. '. a souness alien machine.
It is not without significance th at manifestions, however irrespon- sible and superficial, of the Arab attitude may be observed in widely distant towns of Arab speech, where are to be seen chalked up in darker streets those ominous si.gns of the times, the hammer-and-
sick Ie or the swastika. Nationals of these emblems are now fêted in those countries, but less for their intrinsic value than for the opposition which they seem to represent to the Powers who support
Jewry or hold in check the rising spirit of Arabic nationalism. Poli- tical pan-Islam and pan-Arabism, however artificialor ephemeral in th·eir occasional unity, have shown their power of passionate senti- ment towards isolated and immediate objectives where the East resents the further intrusion or dominance of the West.
It is in these circumstances th at the other imperial and colonial Powers with Arabized Moslem subjects have the best of reasons for deep anxiety and interest in all events in the Arab world, and in particular in that part of the Mediterranean borderlands which is Palestine. It is a natural and legitimate interest in the unfortunatp origins of the conflict and in the forthcoming proposals of the Royal Commission for finding a remedy for a now common and contagious political epidemic of opposing Nationalisms.
Once again is demonstrated the growing identity of interest and deep necessity (so long as colonies still exist) for a close working entente between the colonial Powers whose principal imperial road leads through the Grand Canal between the Pil1ars of Hercules and the Bab el-Mandeb, between Gibraltar and Aden.
In Palestine, it is time to redefine and clarify the term ,Jew' as a population of this part of the Eastern Mediterranean. To all practical purposes the immigrants are Europeans. More than 50 % are of Slav or German antecedents and culture from within the old Iimits of the ex-Germanic Empires, and a minority from the land of the Soviets. In the last three years, some 35.000 have come trom Germany itself. The waiting list for the latter is vast. Only a very smal1 pro- portion of them are practising Jews or of wholly Jewish ancestry.
They are Germans, with a resentment of Nazism but retaining a deep nostalgia for Deutschtum. They are providing Palestine with a professional bourgeoisie of the gr·eatest present value and future influence.
Although their capita I remains unexportable from Germany in cash, indirect channels are being created and connived at by which we are witnessing the curious spectable of exiles becoming in effect commercial traveIlers for the very country which has exiled them.
Despite the spiritual and intellectual spread of Hebrew, in order to communicate with the ave rage population in European dress, tlle traveIler in the new Palestine finds that it is Ileither the language of the government (English) which he needs, nor the vernacular of the country (Arabic), but the German dialect called Yiddish (Judäisch), or German itself. In proportion as the French and English move out of the interior of Syria and Egypt, the oil pipes, the strategic bases and aerodromes for the route to the Indies and for imperial defence in the Mediterranean and East Atrica (Madagascar), will retain them expensively in the Syrian parts of racial Arabia.
Neither in Syria-proper nor in Palestine is there a resident French Qr English population capable of assimilatin~ any exclusive, pe-
culi ar, and very unFrench and unEnglish immigrant people. The useful and effieient jewish Agency, which arranges immigrations, is the nucleus of a government whose sub-ageneies in European eities are Legations in petto. In Palestine, it is a people who have already aflag and an anthem. lts healthy and natural evolution wilt be to demand sovereignty. The inspiration may )Je a Moses-joshua or a David-Solomon, President or King. There is optimistic talk of a tiny future Palestine as a seventh Dominion of the British Empire.
That must depend, in present conditions, on whether the British taxpayer and voter will be prepared to afford the luxury of a dominating and overwhelming force, of all arms, in an Eastern Mediterranean to which Germany, Iike Russia, may soon gain direct access, and on whether, antieipating hostilities, he prefers to rely on the Air communications for rapidity to the East while acceding to South African arguments to re-utilize, fortify and equip for se a- traffic the safer complementary open route by the Cape of Good Hope. The finaneial loss on the di stance is in many cases almost compensated by the freedom from the costly dues of the passage
Dy Suez. About 9 % of the raw materials a food of the United Kingdom passes through the Cánal. The Cape route is longer than the Mediterranean route by JO % for Australia and 80 % for India.
Prices of Indian products would "rise, by the longer route and [British tonnage is] merchant marine need to be greatly increased. [1.709.000]
tons less than in 1914, and the proportion in world-tonnage has dropped from 41 % to 26 %.
Meanwhile, in British and French Arabic areas, the history of Arab learning and Arab conquest is a no less inspiring excitant than that of Deutschtum, Rome or Israe\. The allegiance of a jewish Dominion, whose population are German or Slav, would depend on the political
"gratitude" of the new State. "To build upon gratitude is always a doubtful expedient. When nations are in question it is positively dangerous". This piece of experienced wisdom was Bismarck's re-
mark to Wimpfen on the evening after the Battle of Sedan.
The world may eventually credit England with the replanting in Philistinia of the Rod of Moses which, by force of motorculture, has burst rapidly into precocious flower. It may yet come to fruition But it is the precise nature of the eventual fruit which must still remain obscure. This part of the world has produced for previous Empires a Dead Sea Fruit as weil as the Golden Apples-of-discord of the Hesperides.
It is then in this country th at the jew is using the mysticism of his religion to resuseitate a jewish Nationalism, while the Arab is relying on a widespread Arab Nationalism to regain his independence. The protagonists in Palestine are not isolated groups. They enjoy respec- tively the sympathies and prayers of sixteen and two hundred mil-
!iQns of co-reli~ionists ~cattered over at least four çontineflt~. OI1CI;!
aroused, they may continue to encourage or excite their respective groups in Palestine. So that, across the central area of the Desert and the Air Ways to the Indies, periodic conflict may to be foreseen, unless the Royal Commission can find an equitable formula to satisfy the respective partisans.
And what of the future ? Wh at new construction can be built by the Royal Commissi0n which is about the function in Palestine?
This year, before the strike, there were stated to be in the country some 6000 unemployed. The latest published figures of population give a total population of 1.245.000 (of wh om 752.000 Arabs) in 10.000 square miles of territory, of which much is sand or rock. In 1919, the Arabs constituted over 90 % of the population. Approxi- mately 400.000 jews have entered, of whom some 15.000 are tem-
porarily on the land.
The Commission will have to ascertain the "ullderlying" causes of the revolt, which have co st several hundred Iives and great financial losses to both jew and Arab alike. They will have to convince them- selves whether or not the causes, deeper than the alleged failure of
the British Government to keep some of its promises to the Arabs, are in reality based on a principle and feeling of intolerance-of-do- mination by "alien immigrant infidels" from Europe, of whatever nationality or status, and additionally on an almost Pharaonic
tea,.
lest "the children of Israel increase and multiply exceedingly".
Before the War, Syria, which included Palestine, was directly re- presented in tlle Imperial Parliament of their coreligionists, and the highest posts in the Empire were open to Arabs. If there had been na jewish Europeans injected into Palestine, the country would today undoubtedly be at least as independent as the other Arab or Arabized countries round it - Trans-jordania, Syria, Egypt and Irak. On the other hand, we must in fairness recognise that if the Arabs, and the Mandatory Powers, had consented to an unlimited subsidized immi- gration from Europe, not only Palestine but also Trans-jordan and
Syria would today already be blooming Iike the rose, thanks to jewish capital, and, permanently or temporarily, developed and booming.
To this the Arabs reply pertinently enough that the sum of human happiness is not necessarily based on Boom, and th at it was a Jew in Palestine who observed that man cannot live by bread alone.
As regards the fllture of a jewish state or Hebrew nation in Pa- lestine, history shows us examples enough of early beginnings in collectivism, of fllgitives from persecution, and of the mystical export of human suffering as the bases of birth, or renaissance, of nations.
Moreover, we must face the probability that, in Palestine in 20 years time, even if immigration is properly and directly controllect and slowed-down (countered always by misuse of tau rist visas,
"gate-crashing", temporary marriages and massive child-adoptions), th~ sudden rise of natality, among immigra.nt~ ~merging for the first
time to sun and space and air, wilt alone probably place the Arabs (who are beginning to realize it and reacting violently) in a racial and religious minority. Even in the unlikely event of agreement to terminate immigration, the basic grievance would remain. Any dis- interested observer must recognize Sionism in Palestine for what in itself it is, an admirable movement doing admirable work for its own, full of vigour and youthful strength for at least so long as the elixir of economie life eontinues to be poured into its body-politie from outside.
Neither morally nor materially can there, at present, be any ques- tion of abandonment. But, as to whether the British Government re- mains there with peaceful progress, or with lame unequal leaps back- wards and forwards between optimistic indifference and sudden repression, must largely dep end on its ability to face new and un- palatabie facts. It is not, on the other hand,. foreseeable wh at attitude, in the face of the unpleasant publicity of repeated revolts, may be adopted by that valuable and vocal English "radical conscienee of pure j ustice" if questions arise, for application in Palestine, of the admirable ideological clichés of "no goverment (or immigration) without the consent of the governed; of no taxation without rep re- sentation ; of the right of racial self-determination; and of the principle of Trusteeship for materially backward races". Nor is it as yet c1ear as to wheter the reactiotJ of the average practical English taxpayer and voter, faced with rising taxation and exotic expenditure, will be (as for Iraq) to call for drastic reduction of expenditure or partial reduction of British commitments. There can however be no question that the Abyssinian issue has resulted in England in a firm determination to be strong.
There has, in England, so far, been a singular poverty of suggestion as to any new means for creation of good-will and harmonious development in Palestine. That will be the essential task of the Royal Commission which has been awaiting the cessation of rebellion
"before proceeding to its enquiries in ]erusalem".
The term cantonisation has been applied to one of the solutions frequently put forward. There exists, however, for inhabitants of Swiss cantons, equal and mutual rights of migration, settlement, landownership, tra de, education and participation in government.
Neither cantonization nor federation would be properly applicable terms to a system where su eh mutual rights we re non-existent or denied. Segregation or partition would better describe such a process.
The human composition of the Commission allows a surmize th at the principle of segregation or Reserves may indeed oceupy an important place in its discussions. The segregated Arab would probably, however, need substantial aid from the British taxpayer who has not yet realized th at any safe imperia I solution, which at the same time does not leave the Moslem Arab world in Lmanimous if suspendeq
irritation, is going to cost him a very increasingly and irritatingly high price. In the recent troubles, the mass of the Arabs were artifici- ally stimulated and incited by the less peaceable, the more sophisti- cated and the farseeing of the town-dwellers, among whom are also some professional politicians and would-be administrators. Else- where in the world where the education of such has been at all European, it has been only partial; sufficient to produce an infc- riority-coplex or jealousy; and insufficiently lengthy or profound tn create appreciation of the culture or outlook of the West.
The place of the Bedu (Bedawin) peasantry in a modernizing Palestine is partly comparable to that of the Red-Skin in the evolu- tion of North America. He needs safeguards from succumbing to competition which he will for some time be unfitted to meet from his own resources. Pledged by the terms of the Mandate to the develop- ment, in this part of the new eastern Mediterranean, of self-gover- ning institutions which both the idealistic and practical British tax- payer will not forget, it may be necessary to train Palestinians al most wholly in England so as to fit them to carry on the profes- sions or administration of the country with appreciation also of Western European outlook, culture and ideals. There is in Palestine no British population to disseminate British principles, nor British colonists or petty officials to wound unconsciously, by tacit refusal of equality, the susceptibilities of returning candidates.
Apart from this frequent cause of discontent of the educated, it is the half, and not the wholly, European-educated oriental who Sf)
often becomes the enemy of the educator. If education is free, by Bursaries and scholarships, it might be possible to begin with found- lings or orphans ! 1 In the Near Orient and Atrica, where clan nepo- tism is a sacred duty, the family, to the third and fourth generation, of the hapless official descends upon him trustingly, as maggots follow a maggot who has penetrated the fat cheese of government,
"father-and-mother of the poor". If these countries are really essen- tial to the well-being of the French or English Empires who cannot colonize them with their own people, alternatively the middle classes of those countries must be imbued with the liberal traditions and outlook of the West.
Otherwise, there may develop in the Eastern Mediteranean, either the need for ever-increasingly powerful (and costly) military occupa- ti ons, or a number of weak semi-colonial areas (Syria, Cyprus,
Egypt, Palestine) anti French or anti English, and, by themselves, a prey to any coming group of challengers for the sole mastery of the Mediterranean.
In present conditions, spontaneous peace in Palestine is probably not for our time. But an acclimatized Jewish minority lived there side by side in concord and harmony under Turkish rule. So, only when the still recurring ferment of European immigration subsides,
and extremists learn to Iive-and-let-Iive together in unity, the grand- childern of these two Semitic races may in Palestine rediscover each other, a modus vivendi ... and peace.
These th en are some of tlle circumstances which may render more easily compr,etensible to a foreign public opinion, the British deter- mination to restore a reign of law and order as anessential fordimi- nary to the Engenries and recommendations work of the Royal Com- mission 'in jerusalem; and why 20.000 Engli.sh soldiers, from Eng- land, are in Palestine, surported along the Canal by a powerful forces of Sea and Air.
TO RECAPITULATE AND CONCLUDE
A new situation is arising in the Mediterranean, in the "Middle Sea", in the middle between Europe and Africa, between Europe and Asia. The rea I Canal, the Grand Canal, began at the Straits of the Pillars of Hercules and ertded at the Narrows of the Bab el- Mandeb. For the average Englishmen, it begins at Gibraltar and ends at Aden. Whatever the duration in this historie corridor of to-day's new ph ase, history may subsequently compare it, relatively to its local and contemporary world, to the check to the flow of Eastern traffic following the closure and silting of the loek at Suez arter a thousand years of existence (until de Lesseps recreated the communication a thousand years later), or to the ruin within it of the Italian maritime Republics who had dominated it, when the Gibraltar-end witnessed the discovery of an independent outside- passage to India. To-day, all can pass through it securelyon lawful occasions, in time of peace. In time of peace, Britain retains and strengthens her position there. But modern invention applied to its central Narrows is rendering surface-transport through it of capital merchant ships toa hazardous, or too unknown a factor, to risk unreservedly in case of threats of war. Two newly oriented states which describe themselves as "non-democratie nations-in-arms"· hold special strategie positions in the west and centre. And it would be merely short-sig,hted to ignore the possibility of the direct access to the Mediterranean by Germany within a decade. It is not yet possible to postulate, but it is wise to envisage, a central political bloc across Europe from the edge of the territorial waters of Sweden to those of Tunisia, from Scandinavia to Africa. Ta remark these possibilities (where are obvious to all) is in itself no sign of distaste. It constitutes
no· criticism. Much less is it a mark of unfriendliness or alarm.
An autocratie and fast-organizing Soviet has entry to the "Canal"
on the north east, past a still distrustful Turkey. Should the Medi- terranean tend to become an arena of conflict of two contradictory extremist ideologies, neutrality and safe guard of ones obligations
. can only be assured by strength. Towards such strength England is
moving rapidly. The Mediterranean is feeling the formation of a Oerrnan eçonomic Qloc, The ~outhern banks of the Qrand Canal ar~
occupied by a Moslem-Arabic world visibly and increasingly restive, and partly excited by successive Arab revolts against England and jewry in Arab Palestine. Traditionally contemptuous or jealous of their own jewish populations, the Arab world actively imagines the infidel democracies of the West to be "jew-ridden and decadent".
Their simplistic interpretation of the news-of-the-world leads them to see enfeeblement or decadence in the assembied might of the fleets of democratic England, drawn threateningly and ineffectually across the road from Rome to the capitalof "England's Abyssinian ally". For them, a national discipline and a determined Sultan triumphed against the fetwa of 50 democratic States. In the racial Arab world, the anti- jewish marchings and counter-marchings in the east of Londen are eagerly discussed. The essential significance of the word Islam is a 'religious' discipline. In the patent strife in Spain, the Moslem Mediterranean sees the reconquest, by a new Moorish invasion, of an irreligious and anarchic government calling itself democratic. The latent civil conflicts (occupations of factories, and marches on the capital) under the democratic governments of France and Belgium seem once again to show them a democratic world dividing itself suiciclally into two hostile, but equally undemocratic, camps, of Fas- cism and Communism. And the congregations of these two cults gain in prestige in that they are 'religiously' disciplined and spiritually exalted for race or doctrine. Such (the Netherlands excepted) appear to Mediterranean Moslems the nominally Christian, democratic po- pulations of western Europe. These then are they who seem to them, by force of steel and machinery, to be exploiting colonies, and pa- tronizingly holding the darker and more 'religious' peoples in varying vassalage. To the Arabs, in 1936, the Gods are being revealed ... with feet of c1ay. Hence then their conviction, or hallucination, of dangerous decadence of the ' j udophile democracies' against whom the Arab world is inciting Arab Palestine, new key to the Way to fhe Indies, to revolt. In this indeed, the wish is father to the thought.
In French North Africa and Palestine, the political leaders are strai- ning to follow Arabic Egypt, Arab Transjordan, Arab Syria and Arab Irak into a contagious renaissance of Moslem or Arab inde- pendence. Thus it is that the modern writing-on-the-walls of their ancient cities is beginning to be in the significant signs of the Sheikhs of the Sickle-'and-Hammer and of the Sultan of the Swastika, potent and magic symbols to exorcise the Evil Eye of "decadent democratie masters". Arabic Nationalism waits to profit in the Mediterranean by any coming clash of political creeds. They too do not lack their vision of "Holy War". The preceding remarks might perhaps be summed up and entitled An Arob looks at democracy. And, fund a- mentally, the problem of democracy and the Mediterranean Ways fo the In dies are c10sely related. Our Arab's distance and angle of vision are al most as detached as might be that of an inhabitant of Mars.
But in th at Martian's eyes we may at least dimly desery one aspect of ourselves as others see us. And in England, where the slow, sound mass of public opinion refuses to be jockeyed or herded into any extremist and compartmented conception of life, the firm unflickering flame of democratie ideals is still a be aeon in an angry rock-bound sea for the storm-tossed ships-of-State of modern Europe. And in England to-day the necessary strengthening changes are being ra,..
pidly constructed to meet all the hazards of new political position of our continent
As England contractually reaffirms her position in an Egypt which she is pledged to defend, the nerve centre and key position for the feeding, fuelling and guarding of the main routes to the Orient, by the pipe-lines and the desert, by Air and Sea, and for the defence of the Middle East and Africa, spreads to the part of the Arabic world which is Palestine. It is part of a Moslem world for which, in Africa, Italy, equally with France and England, has solemn responsibilities and common interests. Along, or across, the western Air Way to the Indies Iie the Halian peninsuIa, Libya and Rhodes.
Along, or across, the Sea Way tie Mediterranean Pantellaria, and three sharp Italian projections from the new Moslem world: Libya, the Eritrean part of the Bab el-Mandeb and (in the Indian Ocean) Guardafui. Thus, once again, is illustrated the identity of interest and need for friendly working-agreement between the imperial and colonial Powers of Europe, whose main imperial road leads through a Mediterranean and Red Sea of which they can separately interrupt, or collectively assure, the passage. Unless complete agreement and mutual security are obtainable, which is not now easy in the ambi- guous half-light of our "Twilight of Treaties", British efforts will have to be concentrated more definitely on aerial and submarine defence in the Eastern Mediterranean. Men, ships and money can, by foreseeing precaution, be Iiberated from any vain and costly idea of "sole domination of the Mediterranean" as a means of insurance.
Resources thus Iiberated would be made available for the provision, with the Dominions, of a sufficient fleet for British transport of raw- materials and food in time of war, for the equipment of African bases on the Outside Passage, for the development in Africa of oil fields for such bases and to feed (direct and centrally) the long-distance and Iinking air services.
Whether by Suez or by the Cape, or (Overland and Air) by Pa- lestine and the Persian Gulf, England stands as a trustee of fuel··
stations and the open road to the Indies. She stands (or falls) as the safe-guarder of the freedom of these vital lines of world-commu- nications, by land, by air and by sea. For: the English taxpayer the task will be a heavy one. lts value is inestimable. It is not undeser- ving of appreciation of all who desire to pass in peace and security on their lawful and peaceful occasions. On the other hand, any external influences tending to weaken British resolution in the Eas-
tern Mediterranean or to weaken the internal wil\ or power of Eng- land to implement it, might lead to partial reorientation of the centre in Syria and Palestine (which are locally inter-dependent).
In Palestine, nearly three quarters of the immigrant population are from within the limits of the two Germanic Empires (of 1917), with whose economie and cultural influences they are strongly imbued, despite their resentment of (the present phase of) Nazism. Any weakening from Syria and Palestine of direct French and English control, to avoid open conflict with authoritarian States expanding in, or into, the Mediterranean, would create, across all the direct Ways to the Jndies, disquieting possibilities of an inviting anarchy in Syria, a germanophile State in Palestine, a Hellenic annexe in Cypres and a Ptolemaic State in Egypt, all weak and all a potential prey to the first Power, or group of Powers, which might decide to bid for the sole hegemony of the Mediterranean. Reasons of internal continental polities, dictatorial reasonings, might then decide when or how, in language of the Mediterranean Odyssey, "all its ways be darkened". No such weakening can therefore be envisaged. The safe- guarding and strengthening of these routes by specialised methods, proceeding pari passu with the precautionary provision of the Out- side Passage, can only be a sou ree of satisfaction and a rallying point of support to Britain among the democratie maritime nations of the West.
Out of the cruel dilemma and pitiless despair of human misery which brought the al most messianic dictators to power, has been created, through a certain leaven of youth in newly unified coun- tries, much of the spiritual exaltation of self-abnegation and of ma- terial achievement which deserves admiration.
But The Netherlands and Belgium, England and France, who have also a deep responsibility for millions of their fellow-men overseas, remain among the lessening number of nations who still seek human happiness by free constitutional methods, by preserving and harmon- ising the principles of individuality and democracy. There is nothing
of innate sanctity in democracy. The test is that of its efficiency to guarantee discipline in freedom, without need of recourse to the ideologies of extremism. It is for us who have, in toleranee and freedom, a common heritage for which our fathers fought, to work together determined that democracy shall not degeneratie into in- discipline, demogogy or licence. So to work that the evil dream, and this premonitory and distorted Moslem reflexion of democracy in the riverain waters of the Mediterranean, may be rectified by the realities of liberal firmness and justice. So mayalso the Jndies, and the multi- farious Ways which lead to them by Air and Land and Sea, be ways of "peace and good-will toword men", without distinction of race or creed.
Mr. A. H. v. d. Wal asks what political principle dominates the Arabian character and hence the Arabian people. Are they inclined to be democratic or anti-democratic, do they possess a national consciousness or do they lean towards internationalism.
Mr. T. Philipps answers that the Arabian people, the Arabian race as a whoIe, is ruled by astrong sense of solidarity and that a Iively national feeling exists. In general, their views may be defined as anti-democratic, but in this connection various distinc- ti ons may be made, depending on differences in standing, educa- tion, etc.
Prof. Dr. E. Moresco asks the introducer wh ether, in his opinion.
the Egyptian nationalists are satisfied now that the new British- Egyptian agreement has come off, or whether they will continue to feel that their national wishes have not sufficiently been com- plied with.
Mr. T. Philipps answers that, in his opmJQn, more or less a general feeling of satisfaction is prevailing among the nationalists.
Of course not every one has been satisfied; desiderata are still existing and will continue to exist. Besides, the Egyptian people have a peculair character; they are very intelligent and industrious, but have little political stability.
Mr. W. Heyligers asks whether the reports are correct, according to which the con~truction of a second Suez Canel - easterly to the one now existing ~ is considered, in order (in case of war) not to be exclusively dependant on one connection between British India and the British Kingdom, .llso in view of possible changes which might take place in Egypt's attitude.
Mr. T. Philipps does not take these intentions seriously; for the time being he assumes th at the present canal wil! - in view of the international agreements - continue to be a sufficient guarantee for the above-mentioned connection.
Mr. W. van Deth remarks in this connection that some time ago he discussed this subject with a prominent Englishman who al~o
was of op in ion that no serious plans for digging a second canal exist. He declared, and quite correctly: "Defending one canal during the war has required great financial and material sacrifices; if we were to, dig a second canal, in time of war we should have to defend two canals, while we now know what problems defending only one already involved".
Prof. dr.
J.
H. Boeke asks what might be the reason of the Arabs' feeling of aversion against democracy; furthermore he will125
be glad to learn whether, in view of the troubles in Palestine and the growing international interests, it wOl1ld not be possible to internationalize the defence of Palestine.
Mr. T. Philipps answers that it is impossible to give a thorol1gh explanation of the anti-democratic feelings of the Arabs. The Arabs do not want any political responsibility for themselves, there- fore they lean towards autocracy. However, their instincts make them dismiss democracy entirely; on the other hand the examples of England and France and the present way of governing these countries are appreciated by them in several respects. As far as he knows, the subject of internationalizing the defence of Palestine has not yet been studied seriol1sly in England. It is one of the plans sl1ggested by the Labour Party in England, which party
"aims at internationalization of the mandate-countries. But it is a
solution which would certainly be welcomed in England. By no means, however, may this be looked upon as an intention of England to rid herself of the defence.
The chairman, prof. dr.
J.
H. Boeke, oFfers the introducer his thanks for his interesting lecture; then the meeting is closed.I
I
./
..
V[RSPR[ID[
/,. G[SCHRlfT[N
VAN
.
Prof. Dr. H: - KERN
Prijs per deel
f
'6. ~ ; in linnenf
7.20/ '
.
De verspreide geschriften van den buitengewoon kundigen .orientalist worden door de zorgen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië uitgegeven.
Het zal wel onnoodig zijn de beteekenis van deze geschriften voor de vergelijkende taalstudie, oudheidkunde voor Indië enz. nader aan te duiden. De artikelen, die gedurende een halve eeuw in ver- schillende tijdschriften, in verschillende talen over de geheele wereld verschenen, worden nu binnen het bereik van iedereen gebracht.
VERSCHENEN ZIJN DE DEELEN:
I. Voor-Indië, eerste gedeelte. 1913. VIII en 320 blz.
11. Voor-Indië, tweede gedeelte. 1914. VI en 3:l0 blz. . 111. Voor-Indië, slot. - Achter-Indië, eerste gedeelte. 1915. VlII en 323 blz.
IV. Achter-Indië, slot. - Brahmanisme en Buddhisme. - Maleisch-Poly- nesische taalvergelijking, eerste gedeelte. 1916. VUl en 343 blz.
V. Maleisch-Polynesische taalvergelijking, slot. - Indonesië in 't alge~
-meen,reerste gedeelte. HH6. VIII en 321 blz.
VI. Indonesië in 't algemeen, slot. - Inscripties van den Indischen Archipel, eerste gedeelte. 1917. VIII en 317 blz.
VII. Inscripties van den Indischen Archipel, slot. - De Nägarakrtägama,
eerst~ gedeelte. 1917. V III en 320 blz. I
VIII. De Nägarakrtägama, slot. - Spraàkkunst van het Oudjavaansch, eerste gedeelte. 1918. VIII en 324 blz.
IX. Spraakkunst van het Oud-javaansch, slot. - Diversen Oud-javaansch, eerste gedeelte. 1920. VIII en 316 blz.
X. Diversen Oud-javaansch, slot. - Diversen Nieuw-javaansch. - Filippijnsche studies, eerste gedeelte. 1922. VIII en 324 blz. . XI. Filippijnsche studies, slot. - Germaansch, eerste gedeelte. 1923.
VI en 327 blz. '
XII. Germaansch, slot. - Andere Indogermaansche talen. 1924. VI en
332 blz. .
XIII. Diversen en nalezing, eerste gedeelte. 1927. VIII en 319 blz.
XIV. - - Hetzelfde, tweede gedeelte. 1927. VIII en 340 blz.
XV. - - Hetzelfde, derde gedeelte. - Levensberichten. 1928. VIII en
350 blz. .
Register en Bibliographie. 1929. VI en 93 blz. f 2.-; in linnen, kop
verguld f 2.50. . .
De serie "Verspreide Geschriften van Prof. Dr. H. Kern" is thans compleet.
De prijs van een compleet exemplaar (1..5 din. en register) is f 92.-,
I gebonden in linnen, kop verguld f i'10.50. .
