CHAPTER XXX.
BRITISH INTEREST AND WORK IN PALESTINE
Mr. Rogers—Mr. Finzi—Agricultural work in Palestine under the auspices of the British Consul—W. Holman Hunt—Thomas Seddon—A New Appeal—Prof. D. Brown—Rev. John Fry—Rev. Capel Molyneux—Prof. C. A. Auberlen—Dr. W. Urwick—Dr. E. Henderson—Prof. Joseph A. Alexander—Dr. Patrick Fairbairn—Dr. Thomas Arnold.
“The greatest advantages had resulted to the Jews from this indirect protection, and as a natural consequence Jews of all kinds continually resorted to the British Consulate at all times for advice when in distress, and they received every kind of help which could be properly afforded them. They were no longer outwardly persecuted, being well known to be under British protection.... The Russian Jews, now since 1850 British protégés, enjoyed, especially in Safed and Tiberias, a tranquillity to which they had long been strangers, and the Consulate was well seconded in regard to them by Mr. [Edward Thomas] Rogers (1830(1)–1884), the new Vice-Consul at Haifa, besides whom we had had from long previous years, as British Consular Agent, at Acre, Mr. Finzi, who was a Jew.”[¹]
[¹] Ibid., vol. ii., pp. 56–57.
The British Consul also started works of philanthropy which seemed to be the beginning of an experiment in Jewish agriculture.
“A plot of ground of about eight to twelve English acres had been purchased in 1852, on which as soon as money could be obtained for supplying wages some of the poor had been set to work. That land was set apart for ever under the name of ‘the Industrial Plantation for employment of Jews of Jerusalem,’ and it was in due time placed under the security of three trustees.
“The design was not so much to constitute a rural colony of farmers on this spot, as to afford daily employment to residents of the city, returning from work every evening to their families.
“It was always designed that other branches of Jewish agricultural employment, that might be carried on in other places in the vicinity, should be associated with this institution under the general name of ‘Industrial Plantation.’
“We were not so sanguine as to expect pallid creatures, weakened by hunger and disease, to perform the labours of healthy robust peasants of the villages, but at least they could clear off the loose stones from the land in baskets, they could assist in building up dry walls of enclosure with the guidance of a few peasants; they could carry water from the cistern, and they could learn to do other things.