“The Palestine Company has therefore an immense future, which it is easy to foresee even now, but we must allow events to proceed in the development of its activity beyond the modest limits which we at present mark out for it.
“Paris and Jerusalem, March, 1866 and September, 1867.”
The address of the secretary-general of this undertaking is Paris, 24, Rue de la Paix.[¹]
[¹] Jewish Chronicle and Hebrew Observer, December 13, 1867, p. 6.
LXXII.
Edward Cazalet’s Zionist Views
“It was through the armed intervention of England, that, in the year 1841, Syria was transferred from Egyptian to Turkish rule. At that time Lord Palmerston was in office; and his policy, as he explained to the French Ambassador, M. de Bourgoing, was to turn Syria into a desert under Turkish rule, and interpose this desert between the Sultan and his Egyptian vassal. In confirmation of this, which may seem to some an astounding statement, I can only refer you to ‘Guizot’s Memoirs,’ vol. 2, p. 525 ... to Syria assuredly reparation is due on the part of England.... To attempt to improve the Turkish Government of Syria is, for obvious reasons, a hopeless task.... No other country has anything like the same interest in Syria, that we have; besides which, it is to the English nation alone that the population of Syria look for protection and support....
“It was England who handed this country over to the Turks in 1841. Turkey has ever since abused her charge, and it is only just that she should be now called upon to transfer it into more capable hands.”
“The Arabs, who form two-thirds of the whole of the population of Syria, and are for most part lords of the soil, are with very few exceptions completely illiterate, regardless of truth, dishonest in their dealings, and immoral in their conduct. In large towns the greater proportion of the upper classes are both physically and mentally feeble, owing to the effects of polygamy, early marriages, and degrading vices. Out of such elements there is no possibility of creating a ruling class. The other sects are too few in number, and too bigoted and superstitious, to be of any assistance in the government of the country. If, then, the regeneration of Syria is to be attempted, it must of necessity come from without, and can only be brought about by an influx of an industrious and more enlightened people. Fortunately this last resource is not denied to us. The restoration of the Jews to their own land, seems to me the only practicable means by which the regeneration of Syria can be effected. You must not imagine that this event, important though it unquestionably must be, need cause any great perturbation in Europe, or prove in any way a strain upon the resources of England. All that is required is that England should create the conditions under which a large number of Jews would gradually migrate on their own account to Syria and Palestine. The first condition of such a movement is that law and order should be introduced under our Protectorate....