“Is there no other destiny for Palestine but to remain desolate or to become the appendage of an ambitious foreign power? Syria and Palestine will ere long become most important. On the Euphrates and along the coast old cities will revive and new ones will be built: the old time will come back on a scale of greater vastness and grandeur: and bridging the districts the stream will run in the track of the caravans. Syria then will be a place of trade pre-eminence. And who are pre-eminently the traders of the world? Will there, when the coming change has taken place, be any more congenial field for the energies of the Jew? The country wants capital and population. The Jews can give it both. And has not England a special interest in promoting such a restoration? It would be a blow to England if either of her rivals should get hold of Syria. Her Empire reaching from Canada in the West to Calcutta and Australia in the South-East would be cut in two. England does not covet any such territories, but she must see that they do not get in the hands of rival Powers. She must preserve Syria to herself. Does not policy then—if that were all—exhort England to foster the nationality of the Jews and aid them, as opportunity may offer, to return as a leavening power to their old country? England is the great trading and maritime power of the world. To England, then, naturally belongs the rôle of favouring the settlement of the Jews in Palestine. The nationality of the Jews exists: the spirit is there and has been there for 3000 years, but the external form, the crowning bond of union is still wanting. A nation must have a country. The old land, the old people. This is not an artificial experiment: it is nature, it is history.” Needless to say, the political idea, as expounded in these sentences, could not have been put more convincingly by the staunchest Jewish political Zionist.
A few years later, two distinguished Englishmen started propaganda work on the same lines as Lord Shaftesbury: Edward Cazalet and Laurence Oliphant.
Edward Cazalet (1827–1883) was a man of great political ability. He was a staunch friend of the Jews, and he knew the East. His idea was that “wrong should be righted and freedom allowed a place in the world.” He had a very high conception of Great Britain’s duty in the East. His appreciation of a centre for “Jewish culture” is especially remarkable. Hardly a single point seems to have escaped him; he covers the ground thoroughly, from criticism of the old English policy to discussion of the new Eastern problem, taking the question of the Palestinian population, the jealousies of the sects, and a hundred other things by the way. There are naturally a few debatable points in this comprehensive treatise (Appendix lxxii). But as a whole it shows remarkable insight.
A place of honour in the realm of England’s Zionism belongs to another remarkable personality: Laurence Oliphant (1829–1888). He was a friend of Lord Shaftesbury, and had been a high official in connection with Indian affairs, secretary to the Earl of Elgin and Kincardine (1811–1863), traveller, journalist, diplomatist and member of Parliament. He took up a scheme for colonizing Palestine with Jews, and early in 1879 went to the East to examine the country and endeavour to obtain a concession from the Turkish Government. In consequence of jealousies this attempt to influence the Turkish Government failed, and the scheme broke down, as did many others that were launched about this time. He again took up the Palestine colonization scheme in 1882. He travelled to Constantinople in the summer of that year, and settled for a time in Therapia. At the end of the year he moved with his wife to Haifa.
He reports thus on his efforts in his book[¹]:—
[¹] The Land of Gilead with Excursions in the Lebanon. By Laurence Oliphant.... Edinburgh and London, MDCCCLXXX. Introduction, pp. xxxv–xxxvi.
“... Prior to starting, however, it seemed to be my first duty to lay the matter before the Government, with the view of obtaining their support and approval, and I therefore communicated to the then Prime Minister and Lord Salisbury the outline of the project. From both Ministers I received the kindest encouragements and assurances of support, as far as it was possible to afford it without officially committing the Government. And I was instructed to obtain, if possible, the unofficial approval of the French Minister of Foreign Affairs of the scheme. I therefore proceeded to Paris, and submitted it to M. W. H. Waddington (1826–1894), who was sufficiently favourably impressed with the idea to give me a circular letter to the French Ambassador at Constantinople and other diplomatic and consular representatives in Turkey. I was also similarly provided with letters of recommendation from our own Foreign Office.
“I would venture to express most respectfully my gratitude and thanks to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales[¹] and to their Royal Highnesses the Prince (1831–1917) and Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein for the warm interest and cordial sympathy with which they regarded the project and which encouraged me to prosecute it.”
[¹] Afterwards King Edward VII. (1841–1910).
“It appeared to me that this object might be attained by means of a Colonisation Company, and that one of those rich and unoccupied districts which abound in Turkey might be obtained and developed through the agency of a commercial enterprise which should be formed under the auspices of His Majesty, and have its seat at Constantinople, though, as in the case of the Ottoman Bank and other Turkish companies, the capital would be found abroad, provided the charter contained guarantees adequate for the protection of the interests of the shareholders.”[¹] “It is somewhat unfortunate that so important a political and strategical question as the future of Palestine should be inseparably connected in the public mind with a favourite religious theory. The restoration of the Jews to Palestine has been so often urged upon sentimental or Scriptural grounds, that now, when it may possibly become the practical and common-sense solution of a great future difficulty, a prejudice against it exists in the minds of those who have always regarded it as a theological chimera, which it is not easy to remove. The mere accident of a measure involving most important international consequences, having been advocated by a large section of the Christian community, from a purely Biblical point of view, does not necessarily impair its political value. On the contrary, its political value once estimated on its own merits and admitted, the fact that it will carry with it the sympathy and support of those who are not usually particularly well versed in foreign politics is decidedly in its favour. I would avail myself of this opportunity of observing that, so far as my own efforts are concerned, they are based upon considerations which have no connection whatever with any popular religious theory upon the subject.”[²]