J. D. B. News Letter

In a radio address during the Jewish Radio Forum, on the question “Palestine as a Land of Contrasts,” Captain William J. Miller, assistant governor of Jerusalem, pointed to the dangers to Palestine’s water supply as a result of the drilling of many artesian wells.

In the course of his address Captain Miller drew a comparative picture of the Arab village which continues to live in the past and the Jewish settlement which is transporting modern methods to a neglected land. He spoke of the orange industry as the country’s backbone.

“When Rudyard Kipling visited Palestine in the Spring of 1929 he must have realized that his inspired muse had been refuted,” Captain Miller asserted. “In Palestine, essentially a part of the East, 20,000 members of a cultured and highly intelligent race are building their home. The return to Palestine of these sons and daughters of our Western civilization has very naturally contributed to its new period of prosperity.

“During the past 14½ years it would seem that the age of miracles has come back to us,” he stated. “The blossoming of Aaron’s rod has been emulated again and again by the sturdy Jewish pioneers whose hands have forced the hitherto barren hills of Judea to bring forth abundant frunt. During the present memorable epoch new towns and villages have sprung into being whose inhabitants, gathered together from the four corners of the earth, speak the language which was old long before the legions of Rome conquered Britain. Hebrew is once again a living force in the land which nourished its early eloquence. As an illustration of the determination to revive Hebrew I might mention that if two British or American born Jews settled in Palestine they would henceforth converse not in English but in Hebrew. They would struggle painfully until they had this unaccustomed language. It would be the mother tongue of their children.

“The contrasts provided by neighboring Arab and Jewish villages are very striking,” he continued. “On the one hand is an Arab village where the mode of life of a thousand years ago still prevails and where the decrees of Kismet continue to control the destinies of every creature. Daily life begins at dawn with the muezzin’s call to prayer, and closes shortly after the sunset thanksgiving. The fields are ploughed by oxen and camels, and the crops gathered and winnowed by hand. Labor, which is cheap and plentiful, has not yet heard of the eight-hour day or the five-day week. If it had it would smile, for except during the stress of the ploughing and harvest periods little work is done by the men.

“In regard to men, old age still rules, and the voice of youth remains silent.

“On the other hand, and perhaps only a half mile away, one sees a Jewish village where the comforts of urban life are in general use. Electrical energy and machinery are allied to manual labor. Movies, radios, social and debating clubs, co-operative societies, good roads, hospitals, schools, water supplies, sanitation and local government are no longer the exclusive privileges of the townspeople. (For the first time in history the town has ceased to hold superior amenities of life as compared with the village). A few minutes’ walk from the archaic