Minutes of the annual meeting of the State Literary and Historical Association

              North Carolina State Library ivH^+n no. 2^
Rr-iriigh
PROGhnUlNGS
OF THE
Nineteenth Annual Session
OF THE
State Literary and Historical Association
of North Carolina
RALEIGH
NOVEMBER 20-21, 1919
Compiled by
R. D. W. CONNOR
Secretary
RALEIGH
Edwards & Brouqhton Printing Co.
State Printers
1920
The North Carolina Historical Commission
J. Bryan Grimes, Chairman, Raleigh.
D. H. Hill, Raleigh. T. M. Pittman, Henderson.
M. C. S. Noble, Chapel Hill. Frank Wood, Edenton.
R. D. W. Connor, Secretary, Raleigh.
Officers of the State Literary and Historical Association
of North Carolina
1918-1919
President James Sprunt, Wilmington.
Pirst Vice-President Miss Mary O. Graham, Raleigh.
Second Vice-President C. C. Pearson, Wake Forest.
'bird Vice-President Miss Carrie Jackson, Pittsboro.
Secretary-Treasurer R. D. W. Connor, Raleigh.
Executive Committee
(With Above Officers)
Edwin Greenlavt, Chapel Hill. A, L. Brooks, Greensboro.
Miss Julia Alexander, Charlotte. Joseph B. Cheshire, Raleigh.
Miss Adelaide Fries, Winston-Salem.
1919-1920
President J. G. deR. Hamilton, Chapel Hill.
First Vice-President Mrs. S. Westray Battle, Asheville.
Second Vice-President T. T. Hicks, Henderson.
Third Vice-President Mrs. M. K. Myeks, Washington.
Secretary-Treasurer R. D. W. Connor, Raleigh.
Executive Committee
(With Above Officers)
W. K. Boyd, Durham. W. C. Smith, Greensboro.
Mrs. H. G. Cooper, Oxford. F. B. McDovtell, Charlotte.
Marshall DeLancey Haywood, Raleigh.
PU *C-? f^ ll'
PURPOSES OF THE STATE LITERARY AND HISTORICAL
ASSOCIATION
"The collection, preservation, production and dissemination of State litera-ture
and history;
"The encouragement of public and school libraries;
"The establishment of an historical museum;
"The inculcation of a literary spirit among our people;
"The correction of printed misrepresentations concerning North Carolina;
and—
"The engendering of an intelligent, healthy State pride in the rising
generations,"
ELIGIBILITY TO MEMBERSHIP—MEMBERSHIP DUES
All persons interested in its purposes are invited to become members of
the Association. There are two classes of members: "Regular Members,"
paying one dollar a year, and "Sustaining Members," paying five dollars a
year.
RECORD OF THE STATE LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
(Organized October, 1900)
Fiscal Paid up
Years. Presidents. Secretaries. Membership.
1900-1901 Walter Claek Alex J. Feild 150
1901-1902 Henry G. Connor Alex J. Feild 139
1902-1903 W. L. FoTEAT George S. Fraps 73
1903-1904 C. Alphonso Smith Clarence Poe 127
1904-1905 Robert W. Winston Clarence Poe 109
1905-1906 Charles B. Aycock .Clarence Foe 185
1906-1907 W. D. Pruden Clarence Poe 301
1907-1908 Robert Bingham Clarence Poe 273
1908-1909 Junius Davis Clarence Poe 311
1909-1910 Platt D. Walker Clarence Poe 440
1910-1911 Edward K. Graham Clarence Poe 425
1911-1912 R. D. W. Connor Clarence Poe 479
1912-1913 W. P. Few R. D. W. Connor 476
1913-1914 Archibald Henderson R. D. W. Connor 435
1914-1915 Clarence Poe R. D. W. Connor 412
1915-1916 Howard E. Rondthaler R. D. W. Connor 501
1916-1917 H. A. London R. D. W. Connor 521
1917-1918 Jameis iSprunt R. D. W. Connor 453
1918-1919 James Sprunt R. D. W. Connor 377
1919-1920 J. G. deR. Hamilton R. D. W. Connor 493
THE PATTERSON MEMORIAL CUP
Conditions of Award Officially Set Forth by Mrs. Patterson.
To the President and Executive Committee of th^e Literary and Historical
Association of North Carolina:
As a memorial to my father, and with a view to stimulating effort among
the writers of North Carolina, and to awaken among the people of the State
an interest in their own literature, I desire to p-resent to your society a
loving cup upon the following stipulations, which I trust will meet with
your approval, and will be found to be just and practicable:
1. The cup will be known as the "William Houston Patterson Memorial
Cup."
2. It will be awarded at each annual meeting of your association for ten
successive years, beginning with October, 1905.
3. It will be given to that resident of the State who during the twelve
months from September 1st of the previous year to September 1st of the
year of the award has displayed, either in prose or poetry, without regard
to its length, the greatest excellence and the highest literary skill and genius.
The work must be published during the said twelve months, and no manu-script
nor any unpublished writings will be considered.
4. The name of the successful competitor will be engraved upon the cup,
with the date of award, and it will remain in his possession until October
1st of the following year, when it shall be returned to the Treasurer of the
Association, to be by him held in trust until the new award of your annual
meeting that month. It will become the permanent possession of the one
winning it oftenest during the ten years, provided he shall have won it
three times. Should no one at the expiration of that period, have won it so
often, the competition shall continue until that result is reached. The names
of only those competitors who shall be living at the time of the final award
shall be considered in the permanent disposition of the cup.
5. The Board of Award shall consist of the President of the Literary and
Historical Association of North Carolina, who will act as chairman, and
of the occupants of the Chairs of English Literature at the University of
North Carolina, at Davidson College, at Wake Forest College, and at the
State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts at Raleigh, and of the
Chairs of History at the University of North Carolina and at Trinity College.
6. If any of these gentlemen should decline or be unable to serve, their
successors shall be appointed by the remaining members of the Board, and
these appointees may act for the whole unexpired term or for shorter time,
as the Board may determine. Notice of the inability of any member to
act must be given at the beginning of the year during which he declines to
serve, so that there may be a full committee during the entire term of each
year.
7. The publication of a member of the Board will be considered and
passed upon in the same manner as that of any other writer.
Mes. J. Lindsay Patteeson.
SUPPLEMENTAEY RESOLUTION
According to a resolution adopted at the 1908 session of the Literary and
Historical Association, it is also provided that no author desiring to have
his work considered in connection with the award of the cup shall communi-cate
with any member of the committee, either personally or through a
representative. Books or other publications to be considered, together with
any communications regarding them, must be sent to the Secretary of the
Association and by him pTesented to the chairman of the committee for
consideration.
AWARDS OF THE PATTERSOJST MEMORIAL CUP
1905
—
John Charles McNeill, for poems later reprinted in book form as
"Songs, Merry and Sad."
1906—Edwin Mims, for "Life of Sidney Lanier."
1907
Kemp Plummer Battle, for "History of the "University of North Caro-lina."
1908
Samuel A'Court Ashe, for "History of North Carolina, Vol. I."
1909
Clarence Poe, for "A Southerner in Europe."
1910—R. D. W. Connor, for "Cornelius Harnett: An Essay in North Carolina
History."
1911
Archibald Henderson, for "George Bernard Shaw: His Life and
Works."
1912
Clarence Poe, for "Where Half the World is Waking Up."
1913
Horace Kephart, for "Our Southern Highlanders."
1914—J. G. deR. Hamilton, for "Reconstruction in North Carolina."
1915—WiLiJAM Louis Poteat, for "The New Peace."
1916—No Award.
1917—Mrs. Olive Tilford Dargan, for "The Cycle's Rim."
1918—No Award.
1919—No Award.
WHAT THE ASSOCIATION HAS ACCOMPLISHED FOR THE STATE-SUCCESSFUL
MOVEMENTS INAUGURATED BY IT.
1. Rural libraries.
2. "North Carolina Day" in the schools.
3. The North Carolina Historical Commission.
4. Vance statue in Statuary Hall.
5. Fire-proof State Library Building and Hall of Records.
6. Civil War Battlefields marked to show North Carolina's record.
7. North Carolina's war record defended and war claims vindicated.
8. Patterson Memorial Cup.
Contents
PAGE
Minutes of the Nineteenth Annual Session 9
Restoration of Jerusalem: President's Annual Address. By James
Sprunt 11
The Breaking of the Hindenburg Line at the St. Quentin Canal. By
Brigadier-General L. D. Tyson 43
A North Carolinian at the Court of St. James During the World War.
By Angus W. McLean 61
Contributions of North Carolina Women to the World War. By Archi-bald
Henderson 85
Some Economic Effects of the World War. By William H. Glasson .... 96
The Preservation of North Carolina World War Records. By Robert
B. House 105
North Carolina Bibliography, 1917-1919. By Mary B. Palmer 109
William Joseph Peele: Philosopher. By Robert W. Winston 113
Edward Kidder Graham: Teacher and Interpreter of Modern Citizen-ship.
By Louis R. Wilson 119
Kemp Plummer Battle: His Contribution to North Carolina History.
By William C. Smith 126
Members 1918-1919 131
Proceedings and Addresses of the State Literary
and Historical Association of
North Carolina
Minutes of the Nineteenth Annual Session
Raleigh, November 20-21, 1919
THURSDAY EYEJSTING, :^ovember 20th.
The nineteenth annual session of the State Literary and Historical
Association of IsTorth Carolina was called to order in the auditorinni
of the Woman's Club, Raleigh, N. C, Thursday evening, JSTovember
20, 1919, at 8:30 o'clock. President James Sprunt in the chair. The
session was opened with an invocation by Rev. W. McC. White, Pastor
of the First Presbyterian Church, Raleigh, ]^. C. Dr. Sprunt then
read the president's annual address o'n ^'The Restoration of Jerusalem."
Mr. A. W. McLean being ill at his home in Washington, D. C, his
paper on ^^A IsTorth Carolinian at the Court of St. James during the
World War" was read by Mr. J. Crawford Biggs.
At the conclusion of Mr. McLean's paper an informal reception was
held for the members of the State Literary and Historical Association,
the IvTorth Carolina Folk Lore Society, and the lN"ort'h Carolina Library
Association, in the Woman's Club building.
FRIDAY MORN"II^G, N^ovember 21st.
The session was called to order in the hall of the State Senate by
President Sprunt, at 11 o'clock. The president presented Dr. Archi-bald
Henderson, of the University of I^^orth Carolina, who read a
paper on "The Contributions of N^orth Carolina Women to the World
War." Di". Henderson was followed by Dr. William H. Glasson, of
Trinity College, who presented a paper on "Some Economic Effects of
the World War." Following Dr. Glasson, Mr. Robert B. House, Col-lector
of ]N"orth Carolina World War Records for the IN'orth Carolina
Historical Commission, discussed "The Preservation of l^orth Caro-lina's
World War Records." In the absence of Miss Mary B. Palmer,
who was unavoidably prevented from attending, it was moved and
carried that the reading of her paper on "^orth Carolina Bibliography,
1917-1919," be dispensed with and that the paper be printed in the
proceedings.
10 I^INETEENTH AnNUAL SeSSIOIST
The president announced tliat during tlie past year tlie Association
had lost three of its most active memhers by death, and that the rest
of the program for the morning session would be in the nature of a
memorial service to them. He presented Hon. E.. W. Winston who
read a paper entitled "William Joseph Peele: Philosopher." Judge
Winston was followed by Dr. Louis R. Wilson, of the University of
North Carolina, who presented a paper on "Edward Kidder Graham
:
Teacher and Interpreter of Modern Citizenship." Mr. William C.
Smith, of the I^orth Carolina College for Women, presented a paper
on "Kemp Plummer Battle: His Contribution to ISTorth Carolina
History."
At the conclusion of the exercises the president announced the fol-lowing
nominating committee, with instructions to nominate officers
for the coming year, and to report at the evening session : Messrs. P. W.
Winston, L. P. Wilson, and Bennehan Cameron.
FRIDAY EVENING, JSTovember 21st.
President Sprunt having been unavoidably called home, the session
was called to order by Vice-President Mary O. Graham, in the audi-torium
of Meredith College, at 8 o'clock. Miss Graham presented Dr.
W. K. Boyd who introduced to the audience Prof. William A. Dun-ning,
of Columbia University, who addressed the Association on "The
Pise o'f ^Nationalism." Following Dr. Dunning's address Col. Albert
L. Cox, formerly of the 113th Field Artillery, 30th Division, A. E. F.,
presented Brigadier-General L. D. Tyson, of the 30th Division, A. E. F.,
who read a paper entitled "The Breaking of the Hindenburg Line at
the St. Quentin Canal."
At the conclusion of General Tyson's paper the IsTominating Com-mittee
reported the following nominations, which were unanimously
approved: President, J. G. deP. Hamilton, Chapel Hill; First Vice-
President, Mrs. S. Westray Battle, Asheville; Second Vice-President,
T. T. Hicks, Henderson ; Third Vice-President, Mrs. M. K. Myers,
Washington, ^. C; Secretary-Treasurer, P. D. W. Connor.
The Association then adjourned sine die.
ADDRESSES
The Restoration of Jerusalem
By James Sprunt
President, State Literary and Historical Association
When we consider tlie history of the Jewish people, we recognize
onr own history; we regard it with the same reverence; we feel in
it the same authority; we contemplate in it the same lessons. Their
national history crowded into ahont 1,200 years was, in miniature, the
history of the nations of the world. It was at once a prediction, a
warning, a lesson, a type, and offered a point of departure to all the
peoples of the world. Like the refrain to a great epic we read, and
the Children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and He deliv-ered
them into the hands of their enemies, and the^n after a season,
the Children of Israel cried unto the Lord in their captivity, and He
raised up such and such an one, and delivered them from the hands
of their oppressors.
The chaos that threatens our very existence to-day, as seen in the
light of the past, is scarcely more than an incident in reconstruction.
Over and over again the old order has died in excesses of bloodshed
to give place to the new, and invariably, every man's hand has been
against every man. Travailings and groanings of creation precede the
birth of every new era. We have far to go before we approach even
remotely the disastrous disintegration of the life of Europe that fol-low^
ed the violent overthrow of feudalism, i^tkins says "the fourteenth
century was one of the trotibled centuries of history. Every state in
Europe was a welter of anarchy; the old mediaeval order was break-ing
up in unspeakable confusion. The breaking of the ice-pack in
northern seas, with the spring tides beneath and the new risen sun
above, is tranquillity itself compared with the confusion of that time.
It was indeed a prophetic confusion, a travail rather than a catastro-phe.
A new world was in the way of being born, but the pain of its
birth was beyond expression."^ To come down to our own continent
and our own times. Judge Connor, whose valuable contributions to
our State literature always illuminate the higher plane of civic right-eousness,
in his admirable address to the Federal Grand Jury on the
11th of N^ovember, reminds us of the apprehension of our own George
Washington as the Republic struggled into life,—that the nation was
marked with anarchistic tendencies. There has never been a great
victory that the victors themselves have not been in a sense, the vic-tims.
It has been said that the real German national defeat came in
their victory over France in 1870, and surely America, after partici-pating
in one of the decisive phases of the late war, has won laurels
^ Pilgrims of the Lonely Road.
12 N'iNETEENTH AnNUAL SeSSIOK
that have seetmed tO' turn in her hand into p-oisoined herhs. For in
the pride of life and the exultation of power, we have cried out, "our
own hand hath gotten us the victory," and He Who delivered the
Children of Israel into the hands of their enemies, hath delivered us
unto the evil counsels of alien forces, and by them will we be bound
until we recognize the might of Jehovah and return to Him in national
repentance, to perform the duties enjoined by the prophet Micah of
old, "t'o do justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy
God." These were the principles that made America great, and they
are the only platform upon which kingdom or republic can build with
an everlasting foundation. And as this is true of the Gentile nations,
how much more emphatic is it in connection with the destiny of the
Jews which is no't controlled by any people nor by any nation; for
it is being worked out through a thousand unconscious agencies, to
accomplish the purpose which the Almighty announced in the begin-ning;
for He Who is our God, is, in a peculiar sense, their God;
we, who belong to the great empire of God, know that He was first
their King, and that they lived under Him in a theocracy which shall
yet be established over all flesh, for when the Son of God shall have
put all things under His feet, then will He deliver His kingdom to
His Father, "that God may be all and in all."
Our theme then, is of paramount importance among the events that
stand out' conspicuously after the smoke of battle has cleared. All
else fades away in ordered course to the oblivion whence it came, but
the Jewish Race is advancing on its pilgrim march from stage to
stage, Uo its final consummation. Other nations rise, reach the pin-nacle
of greatness, fall and disappear forever; others reach a degree
of power and influence, and then decline to a mediocrity that has no
renaissance, but the Jews have builded kingdoms, have risen to great-ness,
have fallen to ruin, and builded again upon their dead past to
come forth again a nation, and have repeated these processes with a
pertinacity that gives us in them a picture of the human being in
large, because this race is imperishable and is typical of the life of
man, and as men look for immortality so, too, shall the Jewish nation
be established forever, for the mouth of our God hath spoken it.
"Their organic law containing the elements of their polity, though given
by God Himself, was yet required to be solemnly ratified by the whole
people. This was done on Ebal and Gerizim, and is, perhaps, the first,
as it is certainly the grandest constitutional convention, ever held among
men. On these two lofty mountains separated by a deep and narrow ravine,
all Israel, comprising three millions of souls were assembled; elders,
prophets, priests, women and children and 600,000 warriors led by the spears
of Judah, and supported by the archers of Benjamin. In this mighty pres-
State Literary and Historical Association 13
ence surrounded by the sublime accessions to its grandeur, the law was read
by the Levites, line by line, item by item, whilst the tribes on either height
signified their acceptance thereof by responsive anthems, which pierced the
heavens. Of all the great principles established for the happiness and good
government of our race, though hallowed by the blood of the bravest and
the best, and approved by centuries of trial, no one had a grander origin,
nor more glorious exemplification than this one, that all governments derive
their just powers from the consent of the governed.
"Throughout the whole system of the Jewish government there ran a
broad, genuine and refreshing stream of democracy such as the world then
knew little of, and has since but little improved."2
From the beginning, this favored nation was taken under tlie pro-tection
of tlie Almiglity Himself, and they were to become a model
people, and an example t'o the nations of the earth, as well as to show
forth the glory of the trne God.
Says Atkins in his delightful book '^Jerusalem Past and Present"
:
"Thirteen hundred years before Christ (we cannot be too sure about
dates) wandering Jewish tribes who had been long in the bitter country
to the south of Palestine, succeeded in crossing the Jordan, and fought their
way towards the uplands of Judea.
"They came under a great sense of Divine leadership, conscious of a
mission and different from all their neighbors in the pure austerity of their
religious faith. They did battle with the Canaanites for possession of the
land, defeating among others, the league of the five kings of Gibeon about
three miles northwest of Jerusalem, and established themselves gradually
in the strongholds, coming through the very price they had to pay for it,
to have such an affection for it as scarce any people has had for any land
before or since. They were not able at once to conquer Jerusalem owing
to the strength of its natural position. It is really a kind of citadel built
by nature upon two rocks separated in olden times by a rather deep ravine.
One of these is higher than the other and both fall away so sheerly on
three sides, as only to be taken with the instruments of ancient warfare
when approached from the north and not at all easily even then. More
than that, even though the lower rock were captured, there still remained
above it the higher level space which had been from of old the seat of the
citadel and the place.
"During the confused times of the Book of the Judges while Israel was
gaining a measure of national unity and was gradually becoming trans-formed
from a nomadic to a field-tilling people, we catch from time to time
glimpses of Jerusalem as one sees a mountain summit through the changing
clouds. For nearly three hundred years the city was regarded by the Israel-ites
as 'the city of the stranger' where it was neither desirable nor safe for
an Israelite to tarry, but as we look back over 3,000 years, we see Jerusalem,
rising from its gray rocks as though a part of the rock itself, has been
built and rebuilt and maintained by three great forces; a strong strategic
2 Vance: The Scattered Nation.
14 J^INETEENTH AnNUAL SeSSION
position, the passionate loyalty of the peculiar people whose capital city it
became, and the faith and reverence of all the disciples of Jesus Christ/'3
"Palestine is a limestone shoulder of western Asia thrust 2,000 feet above
the level of the sea; on the north it is shut in by the high ranges of
Lebanon and anti-Lebanon and by the chasm of the Litany. On the south,
it is no less enclosed by the arid and inhospitable deserts of the upper part
of the Peninsula of Sinai. On the shore of the Mediterranean, it stands as
if it had advanced as far as possible towards the west, separated therefrom
by that which, when the time arrived, proved to be no barrier but the
readiest medium of communication,—^the wide waters of the Great Sea.
Thus it was open to all the gradual influences of the rising communities
of the West, while it was saved from retrogression and descrepitude which
have ultimately been the doom of all purely Eastern States, whose con-nections
were limited to the East only. There was, however, one channel
and but one, by which it could reach and be reached by the great Oriental
empires. The only road by which the great rivals of the ancient world
could approach one another,—by which alone Egypt could get to Assyria,
and Assyria to Egypt—lay along the broad flat strip of coast which formed
the maritime portion of the Holy Land and thence by the Plain of Lebanon
to the Euphrates. It was a convenient arena on which in successive ages
the hostile powers which contended for the empire of the East fought their
battles. It is essentially a mountainous country. The mass of hills which
occupies the center of the country is bordered or framed on both sides,
east and west by a broad belt of lowland, sunk below its level. The slopes
or cliffs which form as it were, the retaining walls of the depression, are
furrowed and cleft by the torrent beds which discharge the waters of the
hills and form the means of communication between the upper and the
lower level. On the west, this lowland interposes between the mountains
and the sea, and is the Plain of Philistia and of Sharon. On the east, it
is the broad bottom of the Jordan Valley deep down in which rushes the
one river of Palestine to its grave in the Dead Sea.
"Few things are a more constant source of surprise to the stranger in
Palestine, than the manner in which the hill-tops are, throughout, selected
for habitation. A town in a valley is a rare exception. Scarce a single
eminence of the multitude always in sight but is crowned with its city or
village, inhabited or in ruins, often so placed as if not accessibility, but
inaccessibility had been the object of its builders. And indeed, such was
their object. These groups of naked, forlorn structures, piled irregularly
one above another, on the curve of the hill-top, are the lineal descendants,
if indeed they do not sometimes contain the actual remains of the 'fenced
cities, great and walled up to heaven,' which are frequently mentioned in
the records of the Israelite Conquest."4
"Beneath the stretches of the hill and valley there is a great depth of
limestone rock of varying degrees of hardness much worn and weathered,
and because of its uneven power of resistance, broken and always changing
surfaces. Above it all is the light drenched blue of the Syrian sky, and
beyond that, all that which the vision of the prophet could discern as to
3 Atkins : Jerusalem Past and Present.
* Smith's Bible Dictionary.
State Literary and Historical Association 15
the meanings of unseen and eternal things. This limestone shoulder by-one
of those coincidences which make history, lies in the path of com-peting
empires hard by the cross roads where the races meet. "5
Such was the land where was unfolded the history of a people who
not once or twice, hut always, neglected its supreme opportunity. We
see them refusing to go into the land that had been promised them
because they were afraid they could not take it by arms, and that
whole generation of cowards actually died and left their bones in the
wilderness before the nation had acquired the necessary forces to
undertake a military venture, and meantime, they were being trained
in the desert to acquire citizenship, and were changd gradually from
a nation of slaves to a nation of property owners. We see them
fighting for the land promised them, often being assisted by their
God Who took up arms with them and miraculously overcame their
foes, and we listen spell-bound to the story of the overthrow of the
walls of the stronghold Jericho, which fell at' the sound of the trum-pets,
in order to show the might of the King under Whose banner
they served. Time after time they are given a demonstration of the
power of their God and His superiority over the heathen: the day
of miracles came twice to the Jews, first to teach them the might of
Jehovah, and second to teach them the divinity of Jesus Christ. They
were as difficult to impress the second time as they were the first
time. Their whole history is one long recital of a stubborn^ obstinate
people who could be trained only after they were completely broken.
We owe much to the Jew, for the very traits that were his undoing
were avenues through which the soul of man is being taught to-day.
How much would our literature be impoverished if there were no
Psalter, and yet how could there have been such a collection of heart
hymns if David had not gone down into the depths of sin as well as
have mounted to the heights of deeply spiritual experience. Their
sweet Psalmist is not only a man after God's own heart', but a man
who has a word for every man's mood of joy and of sorrow.
David's son Solomon, the third king of the Jews, brought the nation
to the height of its splendor, glory and achievement,—thus, almost as
soon as it began to be a kingdom, it began to wane. Like the Oriental
woman and the far eastern rose^, it burst into sudden and magnificent
maturity, to decline quickly, and fade away.
Solomon has the distinction of being the pride of three great reli-gions
of the human family; the most' resplendent of all the Jewish
kings, the sage of the Mahometans, and the historical crest of the
* Atkins : Jerusalem Past and Present.
16 IN^IN^ETEENTH AnNUAL SeSSION
history of tlie Jews from Christian point of view. Around him center
ritualistic formulas which inspire masonic societies^ fantasies of all
kinds, and to him is attributed a power that can read the secrets of
the heart, understand the language of bird and beast, and an authority
that can exorcise the genii of the ring and lamp.
Solomon's earthly kingdom was about the size of Wales, but his
mental kingdom, the whole of Christendom and the entire Moslem
world as well as the Plebrew peoples of all lands and times. He built
a temple to Jehovah which cost something like 85 billion dollars, i. e.,
three times the proposed amount of Germany's indemnity to the Allies.
One single item in it was 10,000 candlesticks.
His bodyguard composed of three score valiant' men, were the tallest
and handsomest of the sons of Israel. In the midst of Jerusalem
there were 40,000 stalls for horses for his chariots, 12,000 horsemen
manned these equipages. His own palace which was twenty years
building, was so magnificent that it was talked of wherever Jewish
trading vessels went,—far out to Spain on the one hand, and t'o India
on the other. His wisdom was as often invoked as his splendor, the
Queen of Sheba came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear
the wisdom of Solomon, and 1,000 years later the Lord Jesus Christ
alluded t'o his glory. The Queen of Sheba's heart melted within her
as well it might at the sight of the most magnificent avenue which was
at the southwestern angle of the Temple. It would indeed be difficult
to exaggerate the splendor of this approach. A colossal bridge on
arches spanned the intervening Valley of t'he Tyropoeon, connecting
the ancient City of David with what is called the "Royal Porch of
the Temple." From its ruins we can reconstruct this bridge. Each
arch spanned 411/2 feet, and the spring-stones measured 24 feet in
length by 6 in thickness. It is almost impossible t'o realize these pro-portions
except by a comparison with other buildings. A single stone
24 feet long ! Yet these were by no means the largest in the masonry
of the Temple. "Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole ©art'h,
is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the Great King.
. . . Walk about Zion, and go round about her; tell the towers
thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces." Such
was the splendor of t'he city in the days of the native monarchy, but
what would the Queen of the East have said if she had been one of
the pilgrims in that great yearly company that came up to the feasts
in the time of Christ? Eor Herod had made Jerusalem a city of
palaces and royally enthroned on commanding heights.
"Terrace above terrace it's courts rose, till high above the city, within
the enclosure of marble cloisters, cedar-roofed and richly ornamented,
State Literary and Historical Association 17
Herod's Temple stood out, a mass of marble and gold, glittering in tlie
sunlight against the half encircling green background of Olivet. In
all his wanderings the Jew has not seen a city like his own Jerusalem.
Although the city was only four miles in circumference and its normal
population 600,000, on fest'al occasions from two to three million souls
congregated in and around it. For its size an incredibly large area
was taken up with the Temple, the plateau of which was artificially
leveled at immense labor and cost, and enlarged by gigantic sub-structures.
In extent it was more than half greater than Sf. Peter's
at Rome and nearly double St. Paul's in London. The Royal Porch
which incorporated the palace site of King Solomon was built on an
eminence as high as a tall steeple, and longer and higher than the
York Cathedral. This detail of the Temple was called the "Porch
of the Gentiles." The Eastern Gate which was the main entrance of
the Temple was made of dazzling Corinthian brass most richly orna-mented
; and so massive with its double doors that it needed the united,
strength of twenty men to open and close them.
Between the altar and the Porch of the Temple was the immense
laver of brass supported by the twelve colossal lions which was drained
every evening and filled every morning by machinery and where twelve
priests could wash at the same time. The low-level aqueduct which
supplied the Temple, derived its waters from three sources,—from the
hills about Hebron, from Etham, and from the three Pools of Solomon.
Its total length was over forty miles. The amount of water it con-veyed
may be gathered by the fact that the surplusage of the waters
of Etham is calculated when drained into the lower pool of Gihon, to
have presented when full an "area of nearly four acres of water."
^
Josephus says that the solid marble blocks used in the Temple were
671/2 by 9 feet. These were the stones of which Christ predicted, "not
one shall be left upon another."
Such was Jerusalem in its magnificence.
"But we cannot understand it unless we understand the prophets, nor
understand the prophets unless we understand Jerusalem. The endeavor
of the prophet to Interpret a weltering world in terms of Divine sover-eignty,
carried the Hebrew prophet to his last lonely summit of vision. He
stood at the listening outposts of the battle lines of the ancient world, inter-preted
the ebb and flow of tides of conquest in terms of the mercy or wrath
of God, and heard the voice of God above the roar of every storm, as he
heard the voice of God in the quiet places of his own soul. As we strive
to find God in the flow of history, to discover His judgments in the rise
and fall of people and to discern moral meanings in the shock of embattled
nations, we are only doing for our own time, what the prophet did for his,
"Through the centuries, the office of the priesthood was magnified, and
the Temple worship enriched. We cannot easily over-estimate the degree
® Edersheim: The Temple. _ u on -
2 North Carolina State Library
Baleigti
18 N^INETEENTH AnNUAL SeSSION
in which the Temple cult with its festivals to which all the people came,
unified and even spiritualized the religious life of the people; but the glory
of Israel was not in its priests or its temple courts clouded with the smoke
of sacrifices; the glory of Jerusalem before it fell before the Chaldean, is the
glory of the prophets; strange and lonely men, not always highly consid-ered,
who brought the life of the palace, the temple, and the market place up
to the judgment seat of a just and sovereign God; men for whom king and
high priest and trader were but instruments in the hands of the Most High;
men who had no fear of authority if it were unjust, and who breathed a
saving compassion for poverty and suffering wherever they saw it; men
who stood for justice, righteousness and spiritual worship, and whose voices
still sound across the years. If Jerusalem had done nothing else than to
offer an occasion to the prophets and furnish a deathles-s illustration of
the providence of God as made manifest through the mutations of history,
we should ever after be in debt to that city."7
All down tlie ages the propheits continued their warning cry not
unlike that of Moses in the beginning,—rather gaining in intensity,
and abounding in detail.
"I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after
you; and your land shall be left desolate, and your cities waste. And upon
them that are left of you I will send a faintness into their hearts, in the
land of their enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them;
and they shall flee as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when none
pursueth; and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies. And
ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat
you up. And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity
in your enemies' lands; and also in the iniquities of your fathers, shall
they pine away with them. And yet, for all that, when they be in the land
of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to
destroy them utterly."8
"The children of Israel shall abide many days without a king and with-out
a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an
ephod, and without a teraphim. Afterward shall the children of Israel re-turn
and seek the Lord their God, and David their king; and shall fear the
Lord and His goodness in the latter days."9
These prophecies project like a shadow across the lives of the Israel-ites
after their capture by E'ebuchadnezzar. What was their later his-tory?
Were the prophets justified in making such threats? Did the
Jews heed the warnings?
During the long Babylonian captivity which came upon them after
centuries of infidelity and idolatry, they experienced the same emotions
that throbbed through the consciousness of the prodigal son, and gradu-ally
came to themselves, learned tO' worship Jehovah with a spiritual
'^ Atkins : Jerusalem Past and Present.
SLev. 26: 33, 36, 44.
9Hos. 3: 4, 5.
State Litekaey and Historical Association 19
turning to Him, and forever abandoned t'he idols whicli liad brought
about tbeir downfall, but strange to say, the reaction from idolatry
led them into gross sins,—sins similar to those which mar the Church
of God to-day. But first let us bridge the gap between the captivity
and the times of the Messiah.
Under Cyrus a considerable number of the Hebrews were permitted
to go back to Palestine under the leadership of such men as Ezra,
;N*ehemiah and Zerubbabel; they rebuilt the temple, though very mod-estly,
and built again Jerusalem itself, but when Alexander the Great
brought Greece to the height of her power, he took the empire that
Cyrus had made powerful, and thus became the over-lord of Palestine.
After his death in the partition of his empire, Palestine fell to the
lot of the Ptolemies of Egypt and many of them were carried off to
Alexandria. Here, under the influence of Greek culture, they became
the liberals of their ipeople and split off from the Karaites (who accept
no rabbinical teachings but hold the Scriptures to contain all that
Jehovah commanded) and the Scribes and Pharisees who reacted t'o
the punishments for idolatry and became the great religionists that
gave name to punctilious, formal worship. The Greek adherents were
the Sadducees of our Lord's time. The Greeks, although they de-stroyed
the Temple and laid waste Jerusalem, could not uproot' the
Jews for they rallied around Maccabeus and regained their inde-pendence
and kept it until 65 B.C. when Rome reached out its iron
hand and snatched this much-fought-over country which lay between
Egypt on the one hand, and Persia on the other. When the land had
suffered what appeared to be everything that had been prophesied, for
they had been scattered and their country had been laid waste, it
was not even the beginning of sorrows, for now the long expected
Deliverer came, the Messiah, in the person of Jesus Christ of N^aza-reth
and they did not recognize Him. They chose instead of Him, as
some are choosing to-day, the robber Barabbas who represented lawless-ness,
plunder, greed and selfishness. "The ruling classes of the Jews
were set in their ways and hard in their hearts. Their traditions and
their vested interests alike were opposed to everything He had to offer.
His freer faith and holier vision challenged them along the whole fron-tiers
of their lives, indicted and angered them. They silenced Him
by death, and the Jerusalem which rejected Him is remembered chiefly
because He walked its streets on His rare visits there," ^^ visits for the
most part compulsory by the Jewish Law. Eor our Lord seemed to
feel the hostility of the religionists in Jerusalem, and only tarried there
for the brief business that called Him thither. Twice He cleansed His
" Atkins : Jerusalem Past and Present.
20 I^INETEENTH Al^NUAL SeSSION
Father's House, once He wept over the city, and at last He went there
to lay down His life, "for it cannot be that a prophet' perish out of
Jerusalem." For, as Dr. Van Dyke so happily has it
:
"Christianity is an out-of-doors religion. From the birth in the grotto
at Bethlehem (where Mary and Joseph took refuge because there was no
room for them in the inn) to the crowning death on the hill of Calvary
outside the city wall, all of its important events took place out of doors.
Except the discourse in the upper chamber at Jerusalem, all of its great
words, from the sermon on the mount to the last commission to the dis-ciples,
were spoken in the open air. How shall we understand it unless we
carry it under the free sky, and interpret it in the companionship of nature?
where 'there are larks singing in the air, storks parading beside the water-courses,
falcons poising overhead, poppies and pink gladioluses and blue
corn-cockles blooming through the grain,—an air so pure and soft that it
is like a caress,—all seems to speak a language of peace and promise, as
if one of the old prophets were telling of the day when Jehovah shall have
compassion on His people Israel and restore them. They that dwell under
His shadow shall return; they shall revive as the grain, and blossom as
the vine; the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon.' "^^
The Christian will find His Lord out of doors in Palestine, and
Jerusalem's "significance lies in the Via Dolorosa down which He
passed which has become the holiest street in the world; the hill upon
which He was crucified which crowns humanity's devotion, and the
sepulchre in which He laid which has been a shrine for Pilgrims for
2,000 years."i2
Jesus of l^azareth uttered prophecies against Jerusalem which were
fulfilled during His own generation, and with the fulfillment of them,
the utter disfavor of the Jews began and all the vials of wrath prophe-sied
by Moses and all the prophets began to be consummated, and
have been in process of fulfillment for two thousand years. "Seest
Thou these buildings?" asked our Lord when His att'ention was called
to the Temple which Herod had reared with great magnificence, "there
shall not be left one stone upon another which shall not be thrown
down."
About the year 70 A.D. Titus besieged the city, and in the bitter
struggle that followed, a struggle so awful that it is said the Eoman
soldiers rode to their saddle girths in blood, and there were no trees
left in the immediate forests because they were used to crucify the
remaining Jews who were left in the city, although the majority iu
11 Henry Van Dyke: Out of Doors in the Holy Land.
12 Atkins : Jerusalem Past and Present.
State Literaey and Historical Association 21
tlie fortresses killed wives and children and committed suicide, Jeru-salem,
although, the center of ravages, was not the only sufferer.
"The Romans destroyed town and country; and the inhabitants who
escaped from the famine, the pestilence, the sword and captivity, were
forcibly expelled from Judea, and fled as houseless wanderers, into all the
surrounding regions. But they clung for a time around the land which
their forefathers had possessed for so many ages, and on which they looked
as an inheritance allotted by Heaven to their race; and they would not
relinquish their claim to the possession of it by any single overthrow how-ever
great. Unparalleled as were the miseries which they had suffered in
the slaughter of their kindred, the loss of their property and their homes,
the annihilation of their power, the destruction of their capital city, and
the devastation of their country by Titus, yet the fugitive and exiled Jews
soon resorted to their native soil; and sixty years had scarcely elapsed,
when, deceived by an imposter, allured by the hope of a triumphant Mes-siah,
and excited to revolt by intolerable oppression, they strove by a vig-orous
and united but frantic effort to reconquer Judea, to cast off the
power of the Romans, which had everywhere crushed them, and to rescue
themselves and their country from ruin failed utterly and their condition
was unutteraJbly worse than before. "13
"The cities shall be wasted without an inhabitant. Every city shall be
forsaken, and not a man dwell therein. They were rooted out of their
land in anger and in wrath, and in great indignation," said the prophet.
Hyamson states that at one time the four inhabitants of Jerusalem were
reduced to one man.
"A public edict of the emperor Adrian rendered it a capital crime for a
Jew to set foot in Jerusalem."i4
After the Roman rule declined the Mohammedans desecrated the
sacred places with their mosques and so outraged the Christian world,
by the pollution of the scenes of the life of Jesus Christ, that for two
hundred years the best blood of Western Europe was spilled to wrest
Palestine from the hand of the Turk. All in vain. The prophecies
will be fulfilled though the heavens fall; not even Christian nations
were permitted to build the land again, it was *'to be trodden down
of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles should be fulfilled."
The Jews have been scattered among the nations—among the people,
even from one end of the earth to the other. They have been removed
into all the kingdoms of the earth; the whole remnant of them has
been scattered unto all the winds; they have been dispersed throughout
all countries, and sifted among the nations like as corn is sifted in a
sieve, and yet not the least grain has fallen to the earth.
"There is not a country on the face of the earth where the Jews are
unknown. They are found alike in Europe, Asia, Africa and America. They
are citizens of the world without a country. Neither mountain, nor rivers,
13 Keith on the Prophecies.
"Tertulius Ap. c. 21 p. 51 and Basnage's Continuation of Josephus, b. 6. c. 9: p. 27.
22 ISTlNETEENTH AnNUAL SeSSIOIST
nor deserts, nor oceans, which are the boundaries of other nations, have
terminated their wanderings. They abound in Poland, in Holland, in Russia
and in Turkey. In Germany, Spain, Italy, France and Britain they are
more thinly scattered. In Persia, China, and India on the east and the
west of the Ganges, they are few in nuniher among the heathen. They have
trod the snows of Siberia, and the sands of the burning desert; and the
European traveler hear-s of their existence in regions which he cannot reach,
even in the very interior of Africa, south of Timbuctoo. From Moscow to
Lisbon, from Japan to Britain, from Borneo to Archangel, from Hindustan
to Honduras, no inhabitant nor any nation upon the earth would be known
in all the intervening regions, but a Jew alone.
"Both kings and people. Heathens, Christians and Mahometans, who are
opposite in so many things, have united in the design to ruin this nation,
and have not been able to effect it. . . . Their banishment from Judea
was only the prelude to their expulsion from city to city, and from^ kingdom
to kingdom. Their dispersion over the globe is an irrefragable evidence of
this, and manj'- records remain that amply corroborate the fact. Not only
did the first and second centuries of the Christian era see them twice rooted
out of their land, but each succeeding century has teemed with new calami-ties
to the once chosen but now rejected race."i5
"In the fifth century they were expelled from Alexandria which had long
been one of their safest places of resort. Justinian abolished their syna-gogues,
prohibited them from even entering into caves for the exercise of
their worship, rendered their testimony inadmissible, and deprived them
of the natural right of bequeathing their property; and when such oppres-sive
enactments led to insurrectionary movements among the Jews, their
property was confiscated, many of them were beheaded, and so bloody an
execution of them prevailed, that, as is expressly related, 'all the Jews of
that country trembled.' "^^
"In Spain, conversion, imprisonment, or banishment were their only alter-natives.
In France a similar fate awaited them.
"They fled from country to country seeking in vain any rest for the sole
of their foot. Mahomet, has from the precepts of the Koran, infused into
the minds of his followers a spirit of rancour and enmity towards the
despised and unbelieving Jews. The Church of Rome ever ranked and
treated them as heretics. Philip Augustus expelled them in toto from
France. "17
"St. Louis twice banished, and twice recalled them; they were banished
seven times from France; they were expelled from Spain. In England they
suffered great cruelty and oppression. During the Crusades the whole nation
united in the persecution of them. In York, England, 1500, the Jews v/ere
refused all quarter and perished by mutual slaughter. Edward I com-pleted
their misery, seized all their property and banished them from the
kingdom. "18
15 Keith on the Prophecies.
1^ Basanage's History, b. 6. c. 21 No. 9.
"Hallam: Vol. 1 pp. 233, 234.
1^ Keith on the Prophecies.
State Litebary and Historical Association 23
In Russia where they have been so numerous, they have been period-ically
murdered, and even down to the present year the fury of their
enemies seems not to have abated.
The charaoteristics of the Jews are common to the whole human
family. In countries like Russia under the Czarist regime where the
government was autocratic, where the Jews were confined to certain
areas, where they were limited in business opportunities, where they
were denied equal rights under the law, and where they were oppressed
for the sake of religion, they have done exactly as might be expected
of ordinary mortals, they have made their living in precarious ways,
not always within the letter of the law; they have evaded and circum-vented
the excessive demands of government, and they have on occa-sion,
joined the natural enemies of constituted authority. This re-action
to oppression is, however, the normal result of prejudicial and dis-criminatory
treatment of any people.
In France and in England under more humane laws., we find the
Hebrews expanding under the liberal treatment of the government and
developing a Disraeli in Britain, a Rothschild in France, and in our
own land where they find themselves still more acceptable, a Nathan
Straus and a Justice Brandeis. These prominent men indicate their
possibilities in development of character when they have the law with
them and not against them. Under a benign government they are
public-spirited, hospitable and charitable toward the poor of the Gentile
woTld and so benevolent to their own race that a Jew never becomes
a charge upon the public charity, and seldom is one arraigned in the
law courts. More quickly, more exactly and more thoroughly than any
race, the Jews respond to treatment, and the nations of the earth who
favor them, are promised by Jehovah, blessings of prosperity in their
material undertakings.
We come now to a consideration of the question, "When did a turn
in the affairs of the Jews begin? How was colo'nization made pos-sible
?
We find a clue to both questions in Isaiah 40 : 2 : "Speak ye com-fortably
to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is accom-plished,
and that her iniquity is pardoned ; for she hath received of
the Lord's hand double for all her sins.''^^
It appears, then, that having been outcasts for a period twice as
long as that when they enjoyed independent national existence, they
would then be re-instated in their own land.
The first instance of returning favor toward the Jew occurred in
the reign of Queen Victoria when Disraeli became Prime Minister.
i^lsa. 40: 2.
24 Nineteenth Annual Session
Now if we take the year 1882, the date of the first permanent coloni-zation
of Palestine, and consider it as the end of the time of disfavor,
and reckon the destruction of Jerusalem in the year of the Babylonian
captivity 586 B.C. as the beginning of disfavor, we will have a period
of 2468 years. If this doubles the favored time, then by dividing it
in half we get 1234 years, the period of favor. Counting backward
1234 years from the Babylonian captivity in 586 B.C. we have the
date 1820 B.C. which was the beginning of the nation under Jacob
when they received the name Israelites. The time, then, of Disraeli,
appears to have been "the set time to favor Zion."20
"The determination of tlie Jewish people to recover a normal national
life never limited itself to faith in a miraculous restoration independent
of the effort of the Jews themselves (although the conviction that the
restoration was certain to come one day was part of the faith of every
Jew). A continuous series of efforts to restore the Jewish national life
in Palestine marks the centuries of exile. But these were all abortive
until the nineteenth century when Jews from Eastern Europe began to
drift in, brought thither mainly by the profound emotion of Miss of dying
and being buried in the dust of the Holy Land. Every Jew who settled
in Palestine was a link between the Diaspora and the land of Israel, for
it was the duty and the pleasure of his brethren to maintain in Palestine
men given up to meditation and -study and dedicated to the spiritual life.
"With Sir Moses Montefiore, whose journeys to Palestine began in the
eighteen-thirties, Western Jewry began to occupy itself constructively with
the Jewish restoration. There was established a fund for the cultivation
of land in Palestine by the Jews. Sir Moses had the idea of obtaining
extensive concessions, and so bringing about 'the return of thousands of
our brethren to the lands of Israel.' Many years afterwards he summed
up the goal of his striving in the following words: 'I do not expect that
all Israelites will quit their abodes in those territories in which they feel
happy, even as there are Englishmen in Hungary, Germany, America, and
Japan; but Palestine must belong to the Jews and Jerusalem is destined to
become the city of a Jewish commonwealth.'
"The interest of Englishmen in the Jewish people and a Jewish Pales-tine
dates back to the Commonwealth. Oliver Cromwell felt as a servant
of the Most High God, that he had a mission to the Jews. The same school
of thought which permitted the Jews to return to England speculated
further upon the Jewish Restoration to Palestine; and this religious interest
fed upon the Bible and upon Protestantism, has survived in great strength
down to our own day, as it is evident by a whole literature, including a
book conceived in this spirit recently published by Sir Andrew Wingate,
a distinguished ex-Indian civil servant. The religious element of English
interest in Jewish nationalism was fortified by political considerations. The
genius of Napoleon revived the statesmanship of Caesar and Alexander, and
conceived as they did, of the Jewish people in Palestine as a pillar of
empire in the East. When Napoleon started upon his expedition to Syria
(1799), he issued a proclamation announcing his wish to restore the scat-
2«Psa. Ill: 3.
I
State Literary and Historical Association 25
tered hosts of Jewry to their ancient land. There can be little doubt that
this seed planted by Napoleon found lodgment in English minds. From
Colonel Churchill to Laurence Oliphant can be seen sprouting the idea of
serving God and Great Britain as well as the Jewish people, by re-creating
Jewish Palestine. It was an alternative solution of the Eastern question,
to the maintenance of the decrepit Ottoman empire. This latter solution
may be said to have been the orthodox one in the nineteenth century, and
to have held the field in official England until the middle of the Great War;
but the confiict of the two political conceptions persisted, although in a
dormant condition, throughout the century, and in the end it was the larger
and nobler that triumphed, "21
"The Colonization movement was in full force in 1882. Among the
refugees were seventeen Russian Jews who settled on the site of the Biblical
En Hakkore, the scene of one of Samson's exploits about one hour and a
half's journey east of Jaffa. These colonists were members of the Bilu, an
organization of Russo-Jewish students formed for the colonization of the
Holy Land. The immigrants although members of the learned professions
and graduates of Universities, worked on the land as common laborers, so
intense was their zeal for the colonization of Palestine, so steadfast their
faith in ultimate success, "22
A number of philantliropists in western Europe began to take an
interest in colo'nizatioUj among tbem Laurence Olipbant, Lord Shafts-bury,
Mrs. Finn and Baron Edmund de Rotbscbild wbo started tbe
wine industry. Tbis promised very well but when the wine became
cheaper on the market than the Jews of Palent'ine could make it, they
would have been ruined if Baron Bothschild had not bought up the
entire output and sold it, which he did at a loss. After this experi-ment
he gave his financial assistance through one of the local societies
which insisted on a variety of crops rather than depend entirely upon
the vineyards as they had done under the Rothschild patronage.
"The pioneers in Palestine had eager sympathizers and ardent well
wishers in the lands from which they came. Societies came into existence
in many of the Jewish centers of Russia for the practical encouragement
and assistance of the colonists. At the same time other societies for the pro-pagation
of the nationalistic idea in Jewry were also formed. Of all these
societies, that of Odessa was the most important and soon became the
leader. Ultimately they all became organized as the Odessa Committee, an
institution whose valuable work in and for Palestine has left a permanent
mark on the prosperity of the land. Before that time these societies formed
part of a world wide movement which became known as the Choveve
Zion, or Lovers of Zion. The Choveve Zion, as a practical movement,
was not established in England until early in 1890. From that year
onwards the movement in England continually gained strength, until the
greater Zionist Movement created by Theodore Herzl in 1896, absorbed it.
At first the wealthier classes in Anglo-Jewry for the most part held aloof,
2^H. Sacher: A Jewish Palestine, Atlantic Monthly, July, 1919.
2^ Hyamson : Palestine.
26 Nineteenth Annual Session
and for some time it drew practically the whole of its strength from the
poorer and foreign elements in the population. There were, however, some
notable exceptions, and the interest increased as the ideal became better
known and the work more effective. Elim d'Avigdor and his kinsman
Col. A. E. W. Goldsmid were successively the heads of the movement; and
among their most successful lieutenants were Herbert Bentwich and Mr.
Joseph Frag. Other well-known English Jews who took a prominent part
in the work of the Choveve Zion were the Rev. S. Singer, Sir Joseph
Sebag Montefiore, and (the late Lord Swaythling. On the platform of these
"lovers of Zion" were also to be found at one religious extreme Dr. Her-mann
Adler and at the other Dr. A. Lazy, Sir John Simon and Sir Julian
Goldsmid. A young Israel was represented by branches of the Choveve
Zion formed at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. The English
movement, like the greater one in Russia, devoted much of its resources
to the assisitance of the existing colonies but in addition it aided in the
establishment of more than one new one. In the course of time the
Choveve Zion in England presented a petition to the Porte, which was
actively supported by both the outgoing Foreign Secretary (Lord Salisbury)
and his successor (Lord Rosebery) and had also the practical sympathy
of the United States Minister to Turkey. The restrictions on the purchase
of land were soon removed, through the influence of Baron Edmund de
Rothschild, of Paris, as well as of the British and American Foreign Offices^
and in 1892 the English Society joined forces with its co-workers in
Ekaterinoslaw and New York to acquire land in the Hauran, east of
the Jordan. In 1893 the whole of the movement throughout the world
was brought into closer co-operation by the formation of a central repre-sentative
committee at Paris at the instance of the eminent Russo-Jewish
physicist Dr. Waldemar Haffkine who was then resident in Paris. The
first Zionist Congress opened on the 29th of August, 1897, when 204 dele-gates
were present. They came from almost every country of Europe as
well as from the United States and Palestine. The outstanding result of
the Congress was the adoption of the following program:
Zionism sitrives to create for the Jewish people in Palestine a home
secured by public law. The Congress contemplates the following means
to the attainment of this end:
(1) The promotion on suitable lines of the colonization of Palestine
by the Jewish agriculitural and industrial workers;
(2) The organization and binding together of the whole of Jewry
by means of appropriate institutions local and international, in accord-ance
with the laws of each country;
(3) The strengthening and fostering of Jewish national sentiment
and consciousness;
(4) Preparatory steps towards obtaining Government's consent, where
necessary, to the attainment of the aim of Zionism. "23
23 Hyamson : Palestine.
State Literaey and Historical Association 27
Mr. Israel Friedlaender in the "Century Magazine/' April, 1919,
says of tlie Zionist Movement:
"This fundamental attitude of the Jewish people towards its common-wealth
has been essentially retained and developed by modern Zionism.
Though refusing to acknowledge the metaphysical basis of the prophetic
ideal, they passionately cling to the ideal itself. To them, too, Zion is
primarily an opportunity for the Jewish people to express itself in accord-ance
with its ancient ideals and aspirations. They realize that while modern
Jewry has made great material progress as a result of Jewish emancipation,
and while it has contributed far more than its share to the spiritual life
of the nations in which the Jews live, it has done very little for its own
distinct culture and spiritual development. They point to the fact that to
mention a concrete example, while the Jews have furnished an amazingly
high quota of musicians and artists to the world, they have failed to develop
a distinct Jewish music or a distinct Jewish art. The Zionists, there-fore,
are forced to the conviction that if the Jewish people is to remain true
to its highest interests, it indispensably needs a center in which it may
have a chance to develop its ideals and to express itself in its own manner
of life and thought, and thereby add its distinct contribution to the treasury
of mankind."24
Our narrative brings us now to tlie beginning of tbe World War.
We quote Dr. David Baron in tbe Sunday School Times for February
11, 1918:
"It is now a well known fact that the chief instrument in interesting
the leading British statesmen and politicians in the national future of the
Jewish nation, and in eventually calling forth the momentous 'Declaration'
was Dr. Chaim Weizmann, who has recently been elected president of the
English Zionist Federation. There is a romance of God's Providence in
his career. A Russian by birth, and a student of Chemistry while also an
enthusiastic Zionist, he came to England about 25 years ago and soon
became prominent in chemical research. Early in the war in a dangerous
crisis in the history of the British Empire, he was able by his genius and
discoveries to render the greatest service to the cause of Britain and her
Allies. "When asked in the course of interviews with members of the
British Cabinet, what remuneration he expected, his reply was that he
wanted no reward in money, but only the promise that if and when the
Allies were victorious they would help the Zionists in the realization of
their national aspirations in relation to Palestine. 'Like Esther,' Dr. Baron
reminds us, 'it might be said of Dr. Weizmann, who knov/eth whether thou
art come to the kingdom for such a time as this'?"25
Anticipating tlie time by a few years, we quote at tbis juncture tbe
famous Declaration contained in an official letter written by Arthur
^* Israel Friedlaender : Zionism.
25 David Baron: Sunday School Times. Feb. 17, 1918.
28 I^INETEENTH AnNUAL SeSSION
James Balfour, of the British Foreign Office, to Lord Rotliscliild, Yice-
Chairman of the English Zionist Federation, in I^ovember, 1918:
"His Majesty's Goverment view with favor the establishment in Pales-tine
of a national home for the Jewish people and will use their best
endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object."
For nearly 2,000 years the Jews have prayed ^aily in their syna-gogues
in the four quarters of the world,
"Sound the great trumpet for our freedom, and lift up a banner to
gather our captives and gather us together from the four quarters of the
earth. And to Jerusalem Thy city, return Thou in mercy and dwell therein
as Thou hast promised. Rebuild it speedily, in our day as an everlasting
building, and set up therein the throne of David. Blessed art Thou, Lord,
Who rebuildest Jerusalem."
We cannot listen to the pathos of this great petition without being
reminded of the promise:
"And it shall come to pass that the Lord shall set His hand again a
second time to recover the remnant of His people, which shall be left from
Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Fathros, and from Gush, and from
Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath and from the islands of the sea.
And He shall set up an ensign for the nations and shall a-ssemble the
outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four
corners of the earth. "^'"^
"Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as doves to their windows?
Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring
thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, unto the name
of the Lord Thy God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because He hath
glorified thee. And the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls, and
their kings shall minister unto thee; for in my wrath I smote thee but
in my favor have I had mercy on thee. "27
"Turn ye to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope."28
"And I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel, and they
shall build the waste cities and inhabit theim."29
And the sons of strangers shall huild up thy walls, and their hings
shall minister to thee. ''God has His mysteries of grace," and in the
working out of His plans, kings and peasants bow to His will; even
the unlawful ambitio'n of men flaunted in the very face of the Deity
is turned into the accomplishment of the unalterable plans and pur-pose
of the great God.
2« Isa. 11: 11 12.
27Isa. 61: 4.
2«Zech. 9: 12.
29 Amos 9: 13.
State Literary and Historical Association 29
The world for tlie most part regarded tlie speeclies of tlie German
Kaiser witli unconcealed amusement when lie went on his famous pil-grimage
to the Holy Land via Constantinople. He was at great pains
to proclaim so close a brotherhood-of-man policy between himself and
the unholy Turk^ that his very photograph in Turkish uniform^ was
widespread through the Ottoman empire^ and he was said to have
adopted the faith. There was much method in this madness; there
was method in his Palestine plans. In Turkey he challenged the power
of Britain, in Syria he challenged the power of France. It took years
of persistent posing and speech-making before he could substantially
weaken Great Britain's influence in Turkey, and it took years of
German colonizing before the dwellers in Palestine really understood
his schemes there. It was not enough that he planted colonies at Jaffa
and Jerusalem, not enough that he should declare himself at the tomb
of Saladin the "Protector of Islam," nor that he should costume him-self
like a crusader of old, and with all the magnificence of the great
Frederick Barbarossa, that he had a breach made in the wall large
enough and imposing enough for him and his retinue to pass through
gloriously. There was still a worse infamy,—on the top of the Mount
of Olives he caused to be erected a great hospice with apparent benevo-lent
intent, and in it and upon it was installed the most powerful wire-less
apparatus in the whole world; on top of Mount Zion he built a
German Church on a solid concrete foundation; at the Damascus gate
a hospital- "^he German language was imposed upon the school chil-dren
through Turkish influence, and the Jews were persecuted and rose
in rebellion over the insult and the curtailment of their privileges.
We are remembering that not until 1896 did the Germans make any
noticeable progress in Asia Minor. It was that year that Germany
declined t'o join a league for the enforcement of toleration of the
Armenian. The Kaiser saw that he could gain rather than lose by
encouraging the Sultan in his nefarious schemes, and as the Berlin-
Bagdad project was then the goal of his ambition, he was bending
every energy in secret to gain his objective, the while he was lulling
the world to sleep with his peaceful cradle songs.
"It is probably little understood how many and varied are the schemes
comprised in the expression, the Berlin-to-Bagdad-Concessions. Not only
were the actual financial concessions wrung from Abdul Hamid's Gov-ernment
as the blood money in payment for which he would be permitted
to continue his orgy of lust and murder—such as would undoubtedly bring
the whole of Turkey under German Dominion and make Constantinople
practically a German city—but the forest, mining and other rights con-nected
with the scheme would insure the Asiatic possessions of Turkey
coming directly under German influence and control.
30 ISTlNETEEISTTH AnIS^UAL SeSSIOI^
"The pressing on of the building of the railway at the rate of a mile
a day just before the outbreak of the war, to a great German naval port
at Koweit was to give Germany a direct outlet to the Persian Gulf and
the shores of India; Afghanistan was to be bribed, and with the occupation
of Persia, and the advance through Afghanistan, and by sea from Koweit,
it would not be hard, the Germans thought, to destroy once and for all,
the British dominion in India. This scheme was to be aided, if not entirely
accomplished by means of a Jehad or Holy War, launched as it afterwards
was, from Constantinople, at which the Faithful in all countries were to
rise and to push the infidel—excluding only the German allies of Turkey
—
into the sea. The extension of the railways to Palestine made progress
possible towards the Suez Canal and Egypt. The linking up of the German
possessions in East and West Africa was to cut the line of the Cape-to-Cairo
Railroad, disposing forever of that 'far-fetched Hritish scheme,' leaving the
German free to strike north and south at his future convenience until
finally Africa became his own. The economic control of Russia was no
dream, as we have seen in later days; and thus with a great capital at
Bagdad, a vast Eastern Empire was to be established and German power
to rule without let or hindrance from Hamburg to Singapore."^°
After the first Balkan War, Germany v^as bothered witli the new
Servia and Bosnia which rose out of it. Eventually Bosnia was elimi-nated,
and Servia alone blocked her progress to the far East. Busrah,
the natural port of Mesopotamia, is not a suitable terminus for the
Berlin-Bagdad Bailway, and Germany v^shed to possess the harbor
of Koweit. The Persian Sheik, loyal to the British Government, would
not consent, and Germany began a long process of entangling Great
Britain and Persia in endless difficulties over the matter until the
former was about to sign an agreement with the Kaiser giving him
the coveted port when the war broke out.
Palestine itself formed no part in the great offensive and defensive
plans of Great Britain,—indeed it was unimportant except for its
geographical position lying between the Mohammedan bloc on the
East and the Egyptian bloc on the "West, but it was the fact that the
Suez Canal, the vital artery of Great Britain was menaced, that the
defense of Egypt was undertaken. Then it was found that the enemy
could not cross the Sinai Desert except by certain routes, clearly defined
by the position of the springs and wells, and that only along the
northern route which skirts the Mediterranean coast, was the water-supply
sufficient to maintain any large body of troops. So a plan was
formed to go out into the desert and secure control of the water, which
could be done with far fewer troops than were necessary to defend the
long line of the canal. The scheme succeeded. The Turks were
slowly and steadily driven back from the water-bearing areas and a
Wardlaw Milne: The Key to the War.
State Literary and Historical Associatiojn- 31
large force was freed and sent to France. The Sinai Desert, v/liicli
was in the main a struggle against nature, has, since the days of
Moses, stood as an almost impenetrable harrier hotween Egypt and the
East, and it was after the failure of his Syrian campaign that Napo-leon
who had crossed most of the frontiers of Europe, announced his
opinion that a desert is the most effective defensive barrier against
military aggression.
"Why then," asks Major-General Sir Frederick Maurice who was with
General Allenby, "did we go into the Sinai Peninsula to meet the Turks
instead of leaving them to face the difficulties of the desert? The Turks
were building a railway from the frontier of Palestine and if they had
been allowed to extend it and to make at their leisure arrangements for
storing water, we should have had an attack upon Egypt in force, which
was most undesirable to await passively. Furthermore, it was of the highest
importance to keep open the Suez Canal at all times, as through it passed
large numbers of men and tons of foodstuffs and materials, coming from
Australasia and India.
"We therefore m.oved eastward along the coast route into the Sinai
Peninsula, building a broad gauge railroad as we went and we were very
soon brought up against a very serious difficulty. It was discovered that
the brackish water of the pools and v/ells suited to the stomachs of the
Arabs and the Turks, was not potable for Europeans and their animals.
Water, then for the army, had to be brought from Egypt, and a pipe line
with innumerable pumping stations and reservoirs was constructed across
the desert, Britain, busy making up her arrears in the supply of muni-tions
of war, could not at that time make pipes of the required size and
they were furnished by the United States and carried over 4,000 miles to
their destination. The considerable army at Gaza was, for the most part,
drinking water borne through these pipes from the Nile in Egypt,"3i
It will be rememberd that the Turks were defeated before Kut but
later General Townsend's expedition failed of its objective. His whole
campaign was for the defense of India, but when the enemy deter-mined
to recapture Bagdad it brought AUenby's forces which were
protecting Egypt into conjunction with the aims of Townsend's cam-paign.
To break the concentration of the Turks and Germans which
had Aleppo for the objective, it was decided, says Maurice,
"That it would be more effective and more economical of power, . . .
to strike from the frontier of Palestine than to reinforce our troops in
Mesopotamia, the most distant of our theatres of war, where our troops
were already more than 500 miles from the coast. Accordingly the prepa-rations
for attack upon the strongly entrenched positions which the enemy
had constructed between Gaza and Heersheba were made as secretly as
possible.
21^ Maj.-Gen. Frederick Maurice: War in the Far East.
32 JSTlNETEENTH AnNUAL SeSSION
"The hardships which the troops had to endure were severe, many of
them having only one bottle full of water for 48 hours of great heat and
choking dust. As soon as the flanking movements had made progress, the
line of Gaza was assaulted and the Turks fell back in disorder. The P'ur-suit
was continued relentlessly as far north as Jaffa, the eager cavalry
giving the enemy no time to rally, and bringing off a number of brilliant
charges.
"The Turkish army was completely broken up and lost 10,000 prisoners
and 80 guns. Our troops had out-distanced their supply columns, and a
halt had perforce to be called to bring up food and munitions and stores
before they could move into the hills of Judea toward Jerusalem. "32
What was tlie state of affairs in Palestine at this time? What had
been happening in that distant and silent land? Madam Ben Yehudah
in a notable article entitled Palestine Before the War, gives us a
careful chronicle:
"In 1913, the year before the war, the 35th year from the beginning of
the Jewish National Movement in Palestine, first under the terrible regime
of Sultan Abdul Hamid, and later under the Young Turkish Constitution,
Jewish life in Palestine began to define itself as national in character.
"The number of Jews in the Holy Land had increased approximately
to 150,000. In the principal cities, Jerusalem, Safed, Tiberias, the Hebrews
formed the majority of the population, counting 80,000 in Jerusalem alone.
In Judea, Samaria and Galilee they were in possession of extensive lands,
and they had founded over 60 colonies. . . . These were the marvel of
the natives. From afar off the houses could be seen rising in the midst
of verdure, like oases in a desert. The dwellings were well constructed.
The wide streets were adorned with dignified public buildings, schools and
hospitals.
"Domestic industries had arisen including wine, silk-worms, olive oil and
soap. Orange, almond and apricot orchards charmed the eye. The per-fume
plantations of roses (for making ottar of roses), geraniums and other
flowers resembled a Paradise. Cultivated fields extended so far that the
aspect was like a sea of verdure, where formerly had been the desert
wilderness.
"Machine shops and factories were opened for the production of articles
of building construction, household utensils, and agricultural implements.
Arts and crafts w^ere developed (in the Bezalel Schools) : knitting, weav-ing,
basketry, metal work, lace, pottery, wood carving, jewelry. Commerce
increased. The oranges, almonds and especially the wines of Palestine won
renown in the markets of Egypt, and on distant shores.
"Jews from various parts of the world began to unite in the Holy Land,
and to become assimilated. Thus a new and healthy generation sprang into
being,—straight, well formed, filled with the pride of race and love of
country.
"The Hebrew tongue was the common language of this generation and
fired the Hebrew soul with patriotism.
•''^ Maj.-Gen. Sir Frederick Maurice: War in the Far East.
State Literary and Historical Association 3^
"The old Turkish Government under Abdul Hamid made no objection to
this development of the Hebrew language, which they considered of 'no
importance.' But they systematically impeded the progress of the Jews
in every other direction. They issued decrees against Jewish ownership of
land and colonization, against the planting of orchards and the draining
of marshes.
"There was a remarkable harmony between the various Jewish divisions;
the devout orthodox, the free thinkers, and the Nationalists, now called
Zionists, all seemed in accord.
"The various Jewish schools united in reunions for festivals and excur-sions,
under the flag of the Zionists, and speaking one common language,
Hebrew.
"There was a general sense of happiness and prosperity.
"The Jews awaited the opening of their fine Polytechnic schools at Haifa
as an auspicious event, an expression of the Jewish National idea before
the world, but especially from Russia, America and Germany. The cura-torium
was directed by a committee in Berlin. Instruction in Hebrew had
been assured, therefore, when a courier arrived from Berlin, announcing:
that the instruction should be in German, the news was like a thunder-bolt."
Later this matter of the language set the Jews in two hostile camps,
but the Zionists who declared for Hebrew were much stronger, and opened
up schools of their own in their own language, and the German schools fell
into decay.
"However," continues Madam Ben Yehudah, "the season was prosperous,
the harvests were promising. And there was an unusual flood of tourists.
Among the visitors arrived the Baron Edmund de Rothschild, the cele-brated
patron of the Jewish colonies. The Jewish youths and maidens
went to meet them clothed in the national colors, white and blue, and
mounted on horseback. The populace of Jerusalem received Baron Roths-child
with greater honors than they had bestowed on Emperor William
himself. The Zionists created a national guard to surround him. Other
visitors were Mr. and Mrs. Julius Rosenwald who paid almost exclusive
attention to the Nationalists. Finally there arrived in Jerusalem Mr. and
Mrs. Morgenthau. All the foreign powers as well as the Turkish officials
in Jerusalem did homage to the Jewish representative of the United States,
and this increased the prestige of the Jews in the Holy Land.
"The Ambassador was impressed by the renaissance of Jewish life in
Palestine, but he regretted the internecine conflict over the language ques-tion.
Mr. and Mrs. Morgenthau gave a great dinner to which most of the
eminent Moslems and Christians and the noted Jews of the opposing par-ties
were invited. Several diplomatic speeches were made regarding the
amicable relations between the Jews, Moslems and Christians, America and
Turkey, but the two separate companies among the Jews remained divided.
"Devout Jews assembled on the Fast of Ab at the Wailing Place where
they were accustomed to assemble each year, to mourn for the destruction
of Jerusalem. They watered the ancient foundation stones with their tears
and entreated the Lord of Hosts saying, 'Turn Thou us unto Thee, Lord,
and we shall be turned. Renew our days as of old.'
3
34 J^INETEENTH AnNUAL SeSSION
"In this Jewish prayer, all Jewish hearts of the world unite. In the
utterance of this prayer one era was terminated, and a new era was
ushered in,—for upon the very day of the Fast of Ab, the Great War was
declared in Europe.
"From the beginning of the Great War, Palestine suffered because lew
ships visited the native ports and soon there was a scarcity of necessities,
either because the goods had not arrived, or had been hoarded by the
merchants. Although Turkey herself was not at war, the day after the
Germans commenced hostilities in Europe, the Turks mobilized their troops
and commandeered all the horses, camels and mules. They unharnessed
horses and left carriages standing in the middle of the streets. The usual
means of communication were cut off. Turkish officials visited the villages
and returned driving flocks of young men who were drafted into the army.
To arouse enthusiasm, a public ovation was given to the drafted men in the
streets.
"In Jaffa there appeared a gigantic young Arab who was surrounded by
dervishes flourishing naked swords. With a hoarse cry he shouted: 'The
religion of Mohammed advances by the sword' and this refrain was repeated
by the populace with savage cries.
"To inflame his followers, he cried again: 'The sword demands blood!
Allah preserve our Sultan'!
"This Arab demonstration knew no bounds, and the common people fled
in terror. In Jerusalem evil days were foreseen. People began to hoard
their supplies for the years ahead. The Syrian Christians were in a panic.
In their houses they hid themselves, trembling with fear and saying that
they would be the flrst to be massacred, partly on account of their well-known
friendship for the French and the English. The Armenians declared
that the greatest peril awaited them, for of a certainty they had been
marked in advance for the slaughter. They pointed out that the Jews
were well organized and had some protectors because at the request of Mr.
Morgenthau the United States battleship Tennessee, under the never-to-be-forgotten
Captain Decker, had been sent to Palestine with supplies for the
Jews. A little later on the North Carolina arrived with Mr. Maurice
Wertheim with $50,000 in gold for the relief of the Jews. Almost every
one who could do so, left the country.
"The consulates of France, England and Russia were surrounded by
spies so that anyone, even entering the doors, was immediately under the
suspicion of the Turks; while the German Consulate was the meeting place
of government officials . . . who became insolent and began a syste-matic
persecution of the Jews. . . . From the beginning of the war the
inhabitants of Palestine cherished the hope that Great Britain would find
a pretext to take possession of Palestine, and they were heartbroken after
all their troubles, that England did not intervene, and then Turkey declared
-war on the side of Germany. One of the flrst steps was the announcement
of the 'Jehad.' It was imagined that the whole Moslem population of the
world, 300,000,000 strong, would rise under the green banner of Mahomet,
and humanity itself would be in danger.
"The terror in Jerusalem was extreme. A few courageous Jews and
Christians approached certain Mohammedans and earnestly inquired what
the Jehad would signify to themselves. The explanation was brief, as fol-lows:
State Literaey and Historical Association 35
" 'It signifies that every faithful Moslem is required to slay at least four
unbelievers.'
"To impress the p-ublic, the authorities ordered forty fanatical Circas-sians,
fully armed, to ride on horseback through the streets of Jerusalem.
Silently they passed, brandishing naked scimitars. This was to the inhabi-tants
of the city the only visible sign of the Holy War.
"In the spring of 1915 news arrived that the Turkish Army had suc-cessfully
traversed the desert. A later dispatch announced the crossing of
the Suez Canal—this occasion was celebrated by the illumination of Jeru-salem.
Almost immediately, however, the news arrived of the defeat of the
Turks. The Mohammedans were crestfallen. The Germans failed to conceal
their disdain for the Turkish prowess and their scorn for the Turkish Army.
Jews and Christians avoided being seen on the streets, fearing to be accused
of joy, and in their houses they trembled in dread of the homecoming of the
defeated army.
"Djemal Fasha shut himself up in the wall of the Augusta Victoria Me-morial
on the Mount of Olives, and refused to see any one, not even the most
eminent personages. Thus closed ignominiously one scene in the oriental
dream of power which Kaiser Wilhelm had dreamed for himself in Jerusalem.
In this very Augusta Memorial there is a great throne room in which two
thrones stand.
"In 1916 a second expedition was launched against the Suez Canal with
an army of 250,000 men under the command of the German, Von Kress, but
it was not more successful than the first enterprise. . . . Not only the
Moslems, but even the Germans began to perceive tha;t their star was waning
in the Holy Land. Notwithstanding, the immense German propaganda waged
continuously for ten years before the war, to convince the Arabs that the
land belonged to the Arabians, the ancient tradition now revived concerning
the destiny of the Jews to possess the land, persecutions increased in vio-lence.
Great suffering was inflicted to induce the Zionists to betray the
English.
"Gaza was taken by the British and recovered by the Turks, remaining
in their handw seven months. In June, 1917, General Allenby captured Beer-sheba
and then Gaza. Ludd surrendered, Ramleh fell; on November 16th
Jaffa was captured. Victorious British troops then marched upon Jerusalem.
"For three years the Holy City had suffered privations and sorrows. It
was as if the plague had raged within its walls. Most of the houses were
closed because the inhabitants were dead, or deported, exiled or in prison.
Deserted were the streets. One dreaded to be seen out of doors for fear of
falling victim to the rage of the Turks.
"People hid themselves in cellars and subterranean passages, where life
continued underground by the light of olive oil lamps.
"Even in these hiding places one heard the roar of Turkish cannon, which
was directed against the Tomb of Samuel, where the English had fortified
themselves. One passionate desire filled the hearts of Jews and Christians
alike, as they waited for the hour of deliverance. Their faith in the vic-torious
strength of the British failed not. They prayed that God would
deliver them by a miracle, and show His hand as in the former days.
"In the meantime, Turkish cannon was destroying the Tomb of Samuel,
and the English were making a movement whose object was to encircle
36 Nineteenth Annual Session
Jerusalem. The Turks and the Germans commanded that the city should
be defended, and they sent for reinforcements from Damascus, The garrison
was not sufficiently strong in numbers or in morale to sustain the attack
without aid. When the reinforcements failed to arrive, the Turks perceived
that they would be obliged to evacuate. In great haste they arrested every
one whom they caught on the streets, including the Dutch Consul and a
distinguished Austrian physician, a member of the Hoard of Health.
"In these terrible days in Jerusalem, Jews and Christians fasted and
prayed. Their common sorrow and desolation drew them nearer to one
another. They sought concealment in the darkest cellars and deepest sub-terranean
passages.
"It was in this darkness and dread that the Jews awaited the coming of
their great festival of light and gladness, Han-uc-ca, the Feast of Deliverance
in former days, and now approaching as the day of destruction. The women,
weeping, prepared the oil for the sacred lights and even the men wept, saying
that this v/ould be the last time they should keep the feast in Jerusalem!
They strained their ears to hear the horses' hoofs, and the tread of the
soldiers coming to arrest them and drive them forth. The women pressed
their children to their breasts, crying: 'They are coming to take us! The
persecutors, the assassins!'
"Then suddenly other women came rushing from the outside down into the
depths crying:
" 'HOSANNA! HOSANNA! The British, the British have arrived!'
"Weeping and shouting for joy, Jews and Christians, trembling over one
another, emerged and rushed forth from the caverns, holes and underground
passages.
"With loud cries, with outstretched hands, they blessed the company of
their deliverers, who advanced in a glory of light, for all Jerusalem was
illuminated by the crimson light of the setting sun ... in the very begin-ning
of Hanucca, the Feast of the Miracle of Lights.
"At noon on the 8th of December, 1917, a representative of General
Allenby, Commander-in-Chief of the British forces operating in Palestine,
received from the Mayor of Jerusalem, the surrender of the city.
"On December 10th, at noon. General Allenby made his official entry into
the city by the Jaffa road."33
"General Allenby entered the town on foot. Small detachments of in-fantry
and cavalry, drawn from Britain's far-flung battle line, were drawn
up outside, while French and Italian soldiers were marshalled inside the
Jaffa Gate as the Commander-in-Chief, accompanied by the representatives of
America, France and Italy, passed through it.
"The breach in the wall made for the Kaiser's entry in 1898—a breach
still unrepaired—is near by. But General Allenby came in by the door.
There is a profound significance in the contrasting ways in which England
and Germany entered the city, for the open gate stands for order and obedi-ence
to the law, while the breached wall represents pride, arrogance and
force. There is, moreover, an ancient saying as to the character of those
who prefer some other way of coming in than by the door."34
23 Madam Ben Yehudah: Jerusalem—Its Future and Redemption,
^ Atkins : Jerusalem Past and Present.
State Literary and Historical Association 37
l^o't a gun was fired into the city of Jerusalem, it was t'aken without
bloodshed, without violence, and as for the twenty-fourth time Jeru-salem
passed from one power to the other, it had the backing of the
Jews themselves, for hundreds of them enlist'ed under the Allies' banner
at Jaffa, and their blood flowed with that of their deliverers as they
fought their way to Jerusalem. To the inhabitants of the city Gen-eral
Allenby made the following announcement
:
"Since your city is regarded with affection by the adherents of three of
the greatest religions of mankind, and its soil has been consecrated by the
prayers and pilgrimages of multitudes of devout people of these three re-ligions
for many centuries, therefore, do I make known to you, that every
sacred building, monument, holy spot, shrine, traditional site, endowment,
pious bequest, or customary place of prayer of whatever form belonging to
the great religions of mankind will be maintained and protected according
to the existing customs and beliefs of those to whose faiths they are sacred."
Thus has Jerusalem passed into hands of the nation that has, of all
others, the greatest genius for governing colonials. One who does not
antagonize the natives, one who do'es not countenance religious persecu-tion,
one that fears the God of the Jews, and honors His great and
terrible name.
After the occupation of the city, the first problem of improvement
encountered was that of the water supply.
"That part of Palestine south of Keersheba has been piped with water
from the Nile by British Royal Engineers with American equipment—the
realization, it is said, of a dream thousands of years old. ISeveral millions
of gallons a day are pumped from the canal near Kantara across the Suez
Canal into Palestine. ... On the western slopes of Palestine the valleys
form excellent reservoir sites for collecting the winter rains, though they
would often have to be treated to prevent loss by percolation. The problem
of the water supply of Jerusalem has been attacked by such noted men as
Hezekiah—who constructed a tunnel which is today an 'almost unexplain-able'
engineering feat—Solomon, Pontius Pilate and Herod. In the spring of
1918, the British, using much of the Roman work, installed a six-inch line
from the springs of Wady-el-Arub, about sixteen miles south of Jerusalem,
through which more than 200,000 gallons a day are now flowing into the
city."35
"The tank which Pontius Pilate began was never completed, because the
Roman Government frowned upon the heavy cost of the water system which
he proposed. The British, immediately upon their capture of the Holy City,
began the repair and completion of this tank, which has a capacity of
5,000,000 gallons. An aqueduct leads to it from an inexhaustible spring."36
^ Capt. Carson of the American Red Cross: Journal of the American Medical Asson., Aus.
2, 1919, p. 341.
36 C. W. Whitehair: The Last Crusade.
38 !N"iNETEE]srTH Anntjal Session
And it lias come to pass in our days that the Christians of the world
have conceived a great desire to see the redemption of the ancient people
of the Lord. As though a veil had been lifted from their hearts also,
and the Jew, once despised and persecuted, has found favor in the sight
of the worshippers of Jesus of N'azareth, because their hearts have been
moved by their sufferings and by their faithful love of the traditions,
and greater than this—because a large part of the Church of God pray-ing
earnestly THY KINGDOM COME, believe that it can come only
after the Jews have been turned again home. "Thus saith the Lord of
Hosts : In those days it shall come to pass that ten men shall lay hold
out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of
him that is a Jew, saying, ^We will go vdth you ; for we have heard that
God is with you.' '^'^^ We have indeed heard that God is with the Jew.
"The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee
;
and all they that have despised thee shall bow themselves down at the
soles of thy feet ; and they shall call thee the City of the Lord, the Zion
of the Holy One of Israel."^
^
At the Peace Conference there was, strangely enough, a Council of
Ten drawn from as many nations, and many Christian bodies see in the
concurrence of these national representatives to the proposition of giv-ing
the Jews freedom to live in Palestine developing their own culture
unmolested, a fulfillment of the prophecy.
"There shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jeru-salem,
and every man with his staff in his hand for very age. And the
streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets
thereof. Behold I will save my people from the east country and from the
west country and I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of
Jerusalem; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in truth
and in righteousness."39
Spiritual Israel even the chosen of the Lord Jesus Christ whom
He has gathered out of the world to be witnesses to Him is speeding
the Jew upon his way home. This unity of aim was rather conspicu-ously
set forth in a Christmas verse which appeared in 1918 after the
armistice was signed:
"Adown the hills of Palestine,
Across the silver sea.
The tidings of the angels tell
Of peace that is to be;
For all the hills of Palestine
Are safe in iChristian hands,
And peace on earth begins again
In far-off Jewish Lands."40
s-^Zech. 8:23.
38Isa. 60:14.
seZech. 8: 4, 5, 7, 8,
40 Jane D. Wood.
iState Literaky and Historical Association 39
Out of t'lie confusion and disorder and clasli of interest there is one
unity of purpose, one unity of desire,—the only spiritual result of its
kind of the war,—the wish of Jew and Protestant alike, that Palestine
should become again, sacred to the Lord of Hosts. The whole earth
looks to it' for a spiritual authority, not as though the mouth of man
should proclaim from it a new law, or that man should utter infallible
things, but that the pure reign of the great God Who spoke on Sinai,
should be set up in righteousness, and that the Moral Law should be
revealed in the teachings of the Messiah Whom the Church expects a
second time, and Whom the orthodox Jews still expect with a pathetic
longing.
It' is well, however, to discriminate carefully between the very optim-istic
views of the American Jews and the aspirations of the Zionist
Commission in Palestine. American Jewry looks upon the Balfour
Declaration as a virtual restoration of the Holy Land to Jewish political
control under the mandatory of one of the Great Powers. This is the
extreme view, and it is probably fed on the hopes of millions of Chris-tians
who would feel that such a condition indicated the consummation
of the age, and the fulfillment of the "times of the Gentiles," but on
the other hand, those who are facing facts, know that there is a great
gulf between such a degree of national independence, and mere release
from the bondage of Turkish oppression, which is the only substantial
result of British victory in Palestine at the present time. The Zionist
Commission in the Holy Land is occupied with relief work for the
poor Jews, is caring for the interrupted work of the colonies of which
there are 60, and trying to unite the various contending factions of
the Jews, and treating from time to time with the Arabs who are
very strongly entrenched to the East', and more or less antagonistic to
the Jews. The Hebrews in Palestine have no voice in the emergency
government administered by Great Britain; they are consulted when
any measures are to be introduced which may affect them, but other-wise
they are considered one of the many ethnical groups of people
dwelling in the land. It would be very unwise at the present to seek
to change this condition. Britain has encouraged the Arabs to set up
a kingdom of their own as a foil against the great Mohammedan
world which is seeking quietly and persistently to unite all its divisions
through a process of spiritual revival to fit them for the great struggle
to which they are looking that will settle the supremacy of the rival
religions of the world. This Arab State is composed of two genera-tions
of Syrians who have been trained under the liberal teaching of
American professors in the great American University. They are
40 jN"ineteenth Annual Session
strongly contesting the rising power of tlie Jews wkicli will frustrate
their attempt t'o form a Greater Syria^ especially as their seaport Haifa,
is in the confines of 'Palestine.
But owing to the treaty or Triple Alliance which has been formed
by agreement with the United States, France and Great Britain, there
will be no divided authority, nor any division among those three great
Powers which are virtually underwriting the security of the Jewish
ISTation. The latest advices from London (October 29, 1919) state
that Great Britain is arranging with Prince Peisal, son of the King
of Hedjaz, and with France, the Protector of Upper Syria, for the
withdrawal of all British troops in the whole territory of occupation
including Palestine, and the assumption of the duties of war-time
emergency by the French and the Arabs, pending the conclusion of the
Treaty of Peace. The underlying significance of this is that a big
stride toward complete understanding has been reached by the two
great powers in question. French sovereigp-ty and Arab aspirations
have been recognized by the British, and in thus giving them the con-trol
of the disputed territory under pledge of protection for the Jews,
Great Britain will be able to build her railroad line of communication
from the Suez Canal through friendly countries with no danger of
having to guard it in time of unrest. It would be quite impossible
to construct it through Central Europe where she might find at any
time the line cut by hostile German partisans. If the French by an
understanding with the British, occupy the whole of Syria, Great
Britain will be free to continue her railroad from Suez along the
coastal plain as far as Mount Carmel, then cross the Jordan eastward
south of Galilee, across the plains of Hauran to Aleppo where it will
link up with the Bagdad Railroad which proceeds further eastward to
India.
Thus are the commercial and political moves of two nations which
have been for generations friendly to the Jewish people tending toward
the gradual up-building of a Greater Syria that will be in harmony
with the moderate aspirations of the Jews, giving a homeland to as
many as the country in its very limited size can accommodate without
encroaching on the rights of the Arabs whose progress has advanced
more rapidly and who have established a prior claim to a part of the
disputed territory.
It is estimated that 60 per cent of the Hebrews are Zionists or
ISTationals. They look for the restoration of the Jews to Palestine
with a national language and with a degree of national independence
under a protectorate; 25 per cent of the Hebrews are the Mizrachrists
or Karaites, who represent the strictly spiritual element which rely
V
State Literary and Historical Association 41
solely upon ttie Word of God. These look for tlie Messiab. to come to
deliver them; 15 per cent are Polay Zionists, the working classes, pro-
Ally, radical and convinced that' they will be re-established in their
land, with the same measure of national independence that was theirs
under David, their most beloved King. This last class does a great
deal of harm to the whole cause, and their indiscretions have caused
many bitter encounters between their sect' and the Moslems in Jeru-salem.
The Jews themselves are perfectly aware of this prejudice, and
the wisest are not forcing any issues at present.
On September 12, 1919, there was held in Chicago, the 22nd annual
convention of the Zionists of America. At this great meeting addresses
were made by Justice Brandeis, Felix Frankfurter, Mrs. Mary Fels,
Dr. Stephen Wise, Dr. Harry Friedenwald, Bernard Bosenblatt and
others. It is significant of this great conference, that the report brought
in after all plans had been discussed and all views had been presented,
and all aspirations had been voiced, was moderate and exhibited a
spirit of wisdom most encouraging to all the well wishers of the move-ment.
1st. A campaign is to be waged vigorously against malaria in
advance of any extensive investment by the Jewish ^N'ational Fund,
the Zionist Commonwealth and other purchasing corporations of the
Zionist movement. 2nd. Afforestation is recommended to prevent en-croachment
of sand to stabilize the rainfall and provide a timber sup-ply
and irrigation. 3rd. Strong financial support to* the Hebrew
University is urged. 4th. Lines of development must be agricultural,
industrial and commercial to provide for the incoming population in
large numbers. 5th. Jewish settlements are to be confined to tracts
now vacant or neglected. 6th. There must' be no private speculation
and monopoly of the soil, no commercial exploitation. 7th. Since the
Arabs own about one-half the land, over 90 per cent of whom are
illiterate and could not quickly be adapted to the new system of land
tenure and taxation, it is proposed temporarily to ignore Arab real
estate and apply progressive principles to the Turkish crown lands
acquired by British conquest, and to the property of non-Arab popu-lation.
Political aspirations were entirely suppressed, and the most
that is hoped at present', is a liberal protectorate. The Convention
delighted those whose expectations are based on the material building
up a foundation for the spiritual; the convention was a disappoint-ment
for those who hoped to see the Zionists go in and possess the
land as the Israelites did of old, relying on the hand of the great
Jehovah to lead them on.
42 JSTlNETEENTH AnNUAL SeSSION
Shrouded in impenetrable mystery, the land invit'es every shade of
political and religious opinion, invites every devout pilgrim, invites
every civil disaster.
And it may be, O Jerusalem, that thy children shall come again to
thee in peace, and that for poverty, thou mayest obtain riches, for
ashes—beauty; for desolation—prosperity; and it may be that this
new era is but a rift in the gray cloud of thy tragic destiny,—that
pagan nations may envy thy dawning power only to wrest it from thee
;
that thy children may return to be scatt'ered again, that thy walls may
be rebuilded to be thrown down stone for stone, but like the mountains
of Judea, thou shalt abide with thy hallowed history, with thine im-perishable
past, with thy romantic, storied places, with thy sacred
shrines, adding this last thrilling episode las a climax to the age ; but thy
name shall be deathless.
For however it may fare with thy streets, thy gates, thy walls,
—
the eyes of the whole earth shall look forever toward Mt. Zion for the
glorious appearing of the holy Jerusalem which shall be let down from
heaven, a city four square and of heavenly beauty, adorned like a bride
for her husband, the joy of the whole earth, where shall be seen the
King in His beauty and with Him shall come the great consumma-tion,
for Jerusalem shall satisfy the craving of the humble and of the
great, and shall be not only the desire of the nations, but the home
of the soul.
3"" 0/?/r. ca/ips us
ft
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JhlsTu^N/Mf L Vs/AS
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Breaking of the Hindenburg Line at the St. Quentin Canal
By Former Brigadier-General L. D. Tyson"
Commanding 59th Brigade, 30th Division, A. E. F.
In giving this account of the Breaking of the Hindenburg Line
along the St. Quentin Canal, I wish to state, in the first instance, that
I have made it as accurate as possible from the information that is
now obtainable.
It' must be remembered that the "War Department has not yet pub-lished
the official records of the War, and it is almost impossible at
this time to secure the reports of officers engaged in the operations
described. In cases where I have not the personal knowledge, and
where it was not possible to get access to all the report's desired, infor-mation
has been obtained from newspapers and other sources, espe-cially
from the Stars and Stripes, the practically official newspaper of
t'he American Expeditionary Forces, which was published in Paris
during the World War by American newspaper men. The latter news-paper
had an excellent opportunity of securing accurate information,
and access to official reports, that have not yet been published.
The breaking of the Hindenburg Line along the St. Quentin Canal
cannot be claimed by any one Division. It was a part of a large
operation, and the American t'roops were acting as a Corps and, there-fore,
the only fair and proper way to describe the operation, so far as
the American troops are concerned, is to give an account of what the
27th and 30th Divisions, composing the Second American Corps, accom-plished.
As I was an officer of the 30th Division, in order that there shall
be no possibility of claim that I have been partial, and in the belief
that the account of The Breaking of the Hindenburg Line as given in
the Stars and Stripes is accurate, and written from authentic informa-tion,
if not from the actual reports, I have thought best to take many
facts and much matter from accounts appearing in that newspaper.
After the great drive of the Germans on the Western front in France
and Belgium, beginning on t'he 21st of March, 1917, and their tremen-dous
successes, the British and French realized if they did not have
assistance from America, and prompt assistance, the war would prob-ably
be won by the Germans.
To this end, it is reported, they made such representations to Presi-dent
Wilson of their dire necessity, that he agreed to send ten Ameri-can
Divisions to l^orthern France with all possible dispatch, provided
ships could be obtained.
44 l^INETEENTH AnNUAL SeSSION
The Britisli promised, and did furnish, a large amount of shipping.
These ten American Divisions were transported as rapidly as possible
into IN'orthorn France. Among them were the 27th and 30th Divisions,
both ISTational Guard Divisions; the 27th Division being largely from
New York State and having been trained at Camp Wadsworth, near
Spartanburg, S. C, and the other, the 30th Division, being composed,
at that time, almost entirely of men from I^orth Carolina, South Caro-lina
and Tennessee, and having been trained at Camp Sevier, near
Greenville, S. C.
While the great majority of the men in these two divisions were
INTational Guard troops, there were many draft men, but the draft men
in the 30th came almost exclusively from the three states of ITorth
Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.
Afterwards both Divisions received thousands of replacements in
France, and these came from many states, nearly every state in the
Union being represented.
The 27th Division arrived in France May 10, 1918'.
The 30th Division arrived in France May 24, 1918.
It will be interesting, perhaps, here to give a short historical sketch
of the units of these Divisions, so far as known.
The 27th Division was commanded throughout its entire career by
Major-General John F. O'Ryan of 'New York, who belonged to the
J^Tat'ional Guard before the war, and was the only Major-General who
was mustered in from a ISTational Guard Division and served throughout
the war.
The 30th Division was commanded by a large number of general
officers. It was first commanded by Major-General John F. Morrison,
United States Army, then by Brigadier-General W. S. Scott, United
States Army, then by Major-General Clarence P. Townsley, United
States Army, then by Brigadier-General S. L. Faison, United States
Army, who commanded it from the 1st of January, until the 1st of
May, 1918. Brigadier-General L. D. Tyson, commanding the 59th
Brigade, was placed in command of the Division on May 1, 1918, and
took it to France and was in command until the 27th of May, 1918. On
the arrival of the Division in France the command was taken over by
Major-General George W. Read, United States Army, who commanded
it until about the 15th of June, when he was relieved and placed in
command of the 2nd American Corps in France.
The Division was then commanded by Brigadier-General Faison until
about the 18th of July, when Major-General E. M. Lewis, United
States Army, succeeded to the command and he commanded it from
that time until the return of the Division home in March, 1919.
State Literary and Historical Association 45
It will tlius be seen that the SOth Division liad more commanding
officers during its career tlian perhaps any other Division in the whole
of the American Army. '
Brigadier-General Faison and Brigadier-General Tyson, both natives
of North Carolina, were with the Division from the time it was formed
in September, 1917, until it was mustered out.
General Faison commanded the Division for a longer period during
its training than any other General Officer, and to him great credit
must be given for his untiring energy and zeal in bringing this Division
up to its high state of efficiency, which it showed in the subsequent
operations in which it was engaged.
Of the ten American Divisions which arrived in the northern part
of France in May and June, 1918, the 27th and 30th were selected to
remain in l^orthern France, and were both attached to and placed in
training with the British, their services being very greatly needed at
the time on the depleted British front from Ypres south to Armen-tieres.
The British forces and morale at that time were at the lowest ebb
perhaps during the w'hole war. The presence of these American DiA^'i-sions
greatly enhanced the morale of the British on this front and put
new hope and new life into them. The Americans arrived just in time,
for I believe if they had arrived 60 to 90 days later the war would have
been won by the Germans.
The days which these two Divisions spent in this area were very har-rowing
ones, and especially so during the time they were in the front
line trenches during the last two weeks in August. There was no
sector on the whole British front, or perhaps on the entire front, which
was more subjected to the enemy's fire for years than was the imme-diate
sector in which they were placed at that time.
They suffered many casualties while holding these lines.
The 27th Division consisted of the 53rd and 54th Infantry Brigades,
the 53rd Brigade containing the 105th and 106th Infantry Regiments,
and the 105th Machine Gun Battalion. The 54th Brigade containing
the 107th and 108th Infantry regiments and the 106th Machine Gun
Battalion. The Division also had the 102nd Engineer Regiment, the
104th Machine Gun Battalion and other special troops. The 52nd
Field Artillery Brigade, which was the Artillery Brigade of the Divi-sion,
was never with the Division, being in service elsewhere, and the
Division was always supported in action by the British or Australian
Artillery.
46 J^INETEENTH AnI^UAL SeSSION"
These regiments o£ this Division had been formed by combining the
various J^ational Guard units of l^ew York State that' existed before
the outbreak of the war.
The 30th Division consisted of the 59th and 60th Infantry Brigades,
the 59th Brigade containing the 117th and the llSt'h Infantry Regi-ments
and the 114th Machine Gun Battalion, the 60th Brigade con-taining
the 119th and 120th Infantry Regiments and the 115t'h Ma-chine
Gun Battalion. The Division also bad the 105th Engineer Regi-ment,
the 113th Machine Gun Battalion and other special troops. The
55ith Field Artillery Brigade, which was the Artillery Brigade of the
Division, was never with the Division in France, being in service with
the American Expeditionary Forces in the south and on the American
front. This Division was always supported by British and Australian
Artillery.
The 117th Infantry was the old 3rd Tennessee.
The 118th Infantry was the old 1st South Carolina.
The 119th Infantry was the old 2nd I^orth Carolina, together with
some of the old 1st l^orth Carolina Infantry and about 1500 men from
the old 2nd Tennessee Infantry, both of which were broken up at Camp
Sevier, S. C.
The 120th Infantry was the old 3rd N'orth Carolina Infantry,
together with a considerable number of the old 1st I^orth Carolina
Infantry, and about 500 officers and men of the old 2nd Tennessee
Infantry.
The 105th Engineers was made up largely of the old 1st l!^orth Caro-lina
Infantry.
These two Divisions were assigned, in June, 1918, to the Second
United States Army Corps, and operated with this Corps thereafter
during active service. This Corps was communded throughout by
Major-General George W. Read, United States Army.
After about five weeks of preliminary training, and before the com-pletion
of the training period which they had expected to enjoy in
France, the two American Divisions were transferred to the Second
British Army, under General Plumer, and sent to Belgium, the 27th
being attached to the 19th British Corps and the 30th to the 2nd
British Corps, and both assigned to the support positions known as
the East and West Poperinghe Defense System, immediately in the
rear of the Ypres and Dickebush Sectors in Belgium.
The situation on this part of the front at the time, early in July,
was extremely critical, as the powerful forces of the Army Group of
Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria, which had already, in April,
driven deeply through the British lines about Armentieres and cap-
State Literary and Historical Association 47
tured the commanding eminence of Mount Kemmel, were daily ex-pected
to begin another desperate drive for the capture of the Channel
ports to the northwest, and the vitally important Bethune coal fields
I'o the southwest. Should the Germans make a successful beginning
of such a drive and get through the British front lines, the brunt of
the attack would fall upon these partly trained American divisions.
Fortunately, the attack never came, the enemy elected inst'ead to
open an offensive east and west of Eeims and then, on July 18th at
last definitely losing the initiative in the great counter attack of Mar-shal
Foch along the Marne.
But, while lying under the observation of Mount Kemmel and the
enemy's accurate artillery fire in July and early August, the American
Divisions rapidly became veterans and ready for any work. After
the middle of August they took over front line sectors from the British
divisions, the 30th Division taking the Canal Sector from the southern
outskirts of Ypres to Yoormezeele, and the 27th taking the Dickebush
sector, from Yoormezeele t'o a point northwest of Mount Kemmel.
Owing to the gradual withdrawal of German divisions to meet the
great Allied attacks further south, it became possible, on August 31st,
for the Second British Army to begin a local offensive operation which,
in so far as the American divisions were concerned, resulted, on that
and the following day, in the 30th Division advancing about 1,500
yards, taking Lock 'No. 8 on the Ypres Canal, Lankho'f Farm and the
village of Yoormezeele, while the 27th Division advanced about 2,000
yards, occupying Yierstraadt Ridge, and the northern slopes of Mount
Kemmel.
I have mentioned the activities and training of these Divisions in
this sector in order to show how deeply they had impressed themselves
upon the British during these operations, and, for that reason they were
withdrawn from the front line between September 3rd and 5th and
sent to training areas further south, where they received instruction
particularly in operating offensively with tanks, and about September
23rd and 24th were assembled as the Second American Army Corps
under General Rawlinson of the 4th British Army, and put into the
sector fronting the Hindenburg Line about midway between Cambrai
and St. Quentin at the point where it was said the German defenses
were the strongest of any place on the entire German front, and which
the Germans considered impregnable.
The front now occupied by the British at that point was very
nearly that which they had held previous to the German attack of
March 21, 1918', and from which they had been driven back nearly
to Amiens. Starting in about August 1st to recover once more that
48 ]N"lNETEENTH AnNUAL SeSSION
devastated stretch of the valley of the So'mme between its junction with
the Ancre and St. Quentin, which had been first lost in 1914, regained
in 1915, and then lost again in the spring of 1918, with true British
determination they had pushed on, foot by foot, for nearly two months,
against the most bitter opposition, until they were once more occu-pying
all but the foremost of their old trenches before the Hindenburg
Line between St. Quentin and Cambrai.
The plans for the great offensive involving the Allied forces on every
front' were now perfect and, as has been previously pointed out, the
initial attack of Marshal Haig's British Armies was to be made on
September 27th, the day after the advance of the First American and
Fourth French Armies on both sides of the Argonne.
The British effort was to begin with an assault by the First and
Third Armies on a 13 mile front before Cambrai, to be followed by
an extension of the attack southward to St. Quentin by the Fourth
British Army (of which the 27th and 30th Divisions composing the
2nd American Corps were a part) and still south of these by the First
French Army. When its turn came General Rawlinson's Fourth Army
was to go in on a front of 12 miles, from Holnon north to Yendheuille,
with the E^inth British Corps on the right, the second American Corps
in the center, supported by the Australian Corps under General Monash,
and the Third British Corps on the left.
The 27th and 30th American Divisions relieved the 18th and 75th
British Divisions in the front line, opposite Bony and Bellicourt, on
the night of September 24th and 23rd, 1918, respectively.
The attack which they were to make had been planned by the Aus-tralian
Corps which had been fighting since August 8th and had
pushed the Germans back from Yillers Bretonneux to the Hindenburg
Line, and the 3rd and 5th Australian Divisions were to support the
Americans closely and relieve them when the first objectives had
been obtained.
During this time it was necessary to straighten out the American
Corps line which was in front of the Hindenburg Line. If you will
observe the accompanying map you will see that there is a, broken line
running "A.B.C.D.E." This was a line which was actually occupied
by the 27th and 30th Divisions when they were first put into the line
in front of the Hindenburg System.
You will, also, observe the broken line "X.Y.Z." and the straight
line above it "U.Y.W." The broken line is the line that it was in-tended
the troops should occupy on the morning of the day when the
attack was to be made, called the Jumping Off Line, and the straight
State Literary and Historical Association 49
line is tlie line which was to be what is known as the Barrage Line,
that is to say, the line where the shrapnel and shells should fall at
the zero hour.
It was considered by the Australian General who had planned this
attack, that these curved lines ''A.B.C.D.E." occupied by the 30th
Division and the 27th Division, should be straightened out by being
pushed forward to the broken line ^'X.Y.Z." which was to be the
Jumping Off Line, and that this was to be done before the day of
the final attack. To this end an attack was ordered to be made by the
troops occupying the front line indioated by the line '^A.B.O.D.E."
on the morning of the 27th, after bombardment had been laid on the
territory between the bent line and the dotted line.
It is perhaps necessary to say that in battles of this war the greatest
degree of accuracy was required in every attack. The most minute
and detailed orders were given so every single thing that could be-thought
of before, and provided for, was thought out and issued in the
form of orders, down to the very lowest ranks, and everything wa&
explained to the officers and men, so there would be no confusion when
the battle was on.
The location and destination of each unit, from the Corps Head-quarters
down to Regiments and Battalions, were set down on maps so,
with map and compass, each officer would know exactly where he and his
men were expected to go.
In this instance the sectors of the Divisions were laid out on maps
and by consulting the map it will be seen that the 30th was on the
right and the 27th on the left. The 30th had the sector bounded by
the lines "B.O.F." on the right and "G.H." on the left, and the 27th had
its sector bounded by the lines ''G.H." on the right and "W.K." on the
left.
The final battle plans were announced for the great attack which was
to take place on the 29th of September.
It was provided in this plan of battle that the 27th and the 30th
Divisions, constituting the 2nd American Corps, should attack on the
morning of the 29th at 5.50 A. M., the zero hour, and drive forward
and break the Hindenburg Line and penetrate and go forward to Bony
and Guoy and to Bellicourt and I^auroy, the 30th Division to go for-ward
and capture Bellicourt and J^auroy and penetrate to the dotted
line shown on the map "M.N"." and the 27th was to drive forward
and go through the tovms of Bony and Guoy to the dotted line "L.M.,''
the dotted line "L.M.N.'^ being the objective of the two Divisions.
After the attack had been launched and the lines had been broken
and the objectives had been taken by these two Divisions, the Australian
4
50 N'iNETEENTH AwNUAL SeSSION
Corps was to move forward and go through the American Divisions
to points further to the east, the 3rd Australian Corps t'O' advance and
go through the 27th Division to an objective beyond that laid out for
the 27th Division, and the 5th Australian Division to advance and go
through the 30th Division to an objective further east. The 9th British
Corps was to attack on the right of the 30th Division and the 3rd
British Corps to attack on the left of the 27th.
It was further provided in the Corps orders that there should be
an intense bombardment of the positions in front of the 27th and 30th
American Divisions, beginning on the 27th of September, and that
this bombardment should last' for 60 hours and should be composed
of regular shells and a certain number of gas and smoke shells. Thi