With the Judaeans in the Palestine Campaign Part 24

If the responsible authorities at G.H.Q. knew of the method adopted to lure Jabotinsky into the "friendly conversation" which served as a pretext for a gross libel on his character, it reminds one of the good old days when Governments had recourse to "Agents provocateurs." What G.H.Q. certainly should have known was that the accusations levelled at Jabotinsky by a member of their Staff were absolutely untrue. They knew him to be a good and gallant officer who had done his duty, and much more than his duty, faithfully and well to England, but it would appear as if they were greedy for such a doc.u.ment and swallowed it with avidity without any reference to me or, so far as I know, to anybody else.

I think that even the most prejudiced of my readers will admit that in fairness and justice to Jabotinsky this secret report should have been submitted to him for his information, and such explanation and refutation as he could give, before any action was taken against him.

It is strictly laid down in the King's Regulations that all adverse reports must be shown to the officer whose reputation is affected, but, as I have shown over and over again, the Staff of the E.E.F. were apparently a law unto themselves and above even King's Regulations!

I knew nothing whatever of all that had been going on; I knew nothing of Jabotinsky's letter to the Commander-in-Chief; I knew nothing of his interview with the Staff-Major from G.H.Q., and, needless to say, I knew nothing of the report which the latter had written.

My first inkling of the situation was through an official letter emanating from the Deputy Adjutant-General, which stated that "the Commander-in-Chief has his own duly const.i.tuted advisers on matters of policy and is not prepared to grant an interview to a Lieutenant of the 38th Battalion Royal Fusiliers to discuss such matters."

From this moment G.H.Q. lost no time in getting rid of Jabotinsky. On the 29th August, 1919, I received an urgent order to send this officer to Kantara for immediate demobilization. This took me by surprise, for I was very short of Jewish Officers, and stood much in need of Jabotinsky's services in the Battalion.

I wrote and protested against his demobilization, stating that I needed his services, but the only result was the receipt of the following peremptory memorandum:

"A direct order was conveyed for Lieutenant Jabotinsky to proceed to Demobilization Camp, Kantara, forthwith. If he has not already gone, this officer will leave for Kantara by rail to-day. Non-compliance with this order will lead to disciplinary action being taken. Please report departure."

The above was signed by a Staff Officer.

As a result of this piece of Prussianism, Jabotinsky had to proceed to Kantara, where at lightning speed he was demobilised.

He wrote a protest to the Army Council, which I forwarded with my own views on the case. The appeal was a lengthy one, but I will merely quote the following pa.s.sage:

"With the deepest reluctance and regret I must say that I consider this action shows ingrat.i.tude. I do not deserve it at the hands of the British Authorities. From the first days of this War I have worked and struggled for British interests. I am neither a British subject nor an immigrant. I had never been in the United Kingdom or in any British Dominion before this War. I came to England in 1915 as a Russian Journalist, correspondent of the oldest Liberal paper in Russia, the Moscow _Wiedomosti_.

As a correspondent I did my best to explain to the Russian public the British effort and to combat the anti-British propaganda. At the same time I started on my own initiative a pro-Entente and pro-British propaganda amongst neutral and Russian Jewry. At that time many Jews bitterly resented England's alliance with Russia. In the autumn, 1915, I founded a Yiddish fortnightly (_Di Tribune_) in Copenhagen, which took up a strong anti-German and anti-Turkish att.i.tude. Its articles were constantly quoted in the American Jewish Press, and found their way even into Germany and Austria. Here again I have the right to say that I was one of the few--perhaps one of the _two_ men (counting Dr. Weizmann first)--responsible for the origin of the present pro-British att.i.tude of all Jewry. I may add that I did all this at my own expense, or with means provided by my Zionist friends, without any support from any British source.

Against this I know of no facts which could justify the att.i.tude taken up by G.H.Q., E.E.F. I have never heard of any complaint or censure of my conduct as Officer or Man; I have never been informed or even given a hint that anything in my activity could be objected to.

My compulsory Demobilization under these conditions will throw a slur on my name. I consider it unjust. I request that it be annulled, and that I be reinstated in my well-earned position as an Officer of the Judaeans."

A reply to this appeal was never received, and I do not know whether it ever reached the Army Council.

Thus came about the victimization of Jabotinsky, the man who had done so much for England in her hour of need; who had over and over again in the firing line shown that he was prepared to make even the last great sacrifice itself in the cause for which England was fighting. As a reward for all his devotion to England he was, by strange and un-English devices, practically drummed out of the Army.

I think my readers will agree with me that the scandalous course of action pursued by the Staff of the E.E.F. in the case of Lieutenant Jabotinsky would, if it became popular in high places, soon bring our country to ruin and rob us of our fair name.

We know what the corrupt Bureaucrats have done for the once mighty Russian Empire. Had fair play and justice held sway there we would never have beheld the present orgy of Bolshevism which is sweeping through that unhappy country.

Let all kings, princes, rulers and governors remember that to "do justice and ensue it" makes the stoutest barrier against Bolshevism, for, as it says in Ecclesiastes, "oppression maketh a wise man mad."

CHAPTER x.x.xIV.

THE FIRST JUDaeANS.

Nothing but a sense of the duty which I owed to my officers and men induced me to continue serving in such a hostile atmosphere after the armistice had been declared.

We suffered, but we suffered in silence, and just "carried on."

In the midst of our tribulations we, however, scored a decided triumph, for the year-old decision of the War Office was at last announced by the local Staff that we had won a special name, viz., the Judaeans, and that H.M. the King had sanctioned the Menorah as a special badge for the Battalion.

The withholding of this information from us for a full year could not have been an oversight, for I had repeatedly written to ask if the War Office had not sanctioned this name and badge for the Battalion, but received no reply. I can only presume that the object of G.H.Q. in withholding this information, which would have brought prestige to the Jews, was that they had hoped to get the Battalion disbanded and abolished so that it might never have the gratification of knowing that the Imperial Authorities considered that the Jewish Battalion had distinguished itself, and was therefore ent.i.tled to the special name and badge promised in 1917 by Lord Derby when Secretary of State for War.

Just after we had received this good news, I was gladdened by receiving from the Council of Jews at Jerusalem a beautifully illuminated parchment scroll, thanking me for the stand I had made in upholding the ideals expressed in the Balfour Declaration, and for having led the Jewish Battalions successfully in the great struggle which resulted in the "Crown of Victory."

Yet one more triumph was in store for the 1st Judaeans, for, in the beginning of December, 1919, orders came from the War Office that it was to be retained to garrison Palestine, and that the 39th and 40th Battalions were to be amalgamated with it.

It was a great satisfaction to me to learn that it was to be retained, for a time at least, as a unit of the British Army, and that it was to be officially known as the First Judaeans Battalion.

I now felt that my work was done and I could chant my "Nunc Dimittis." I had seen my child weather the storms which had beaten so fiercely about it, and in the end specially chosen to garrison its own Home Land.

A permanent force of Judaeans in Palestine is an essentially sound measure from every point of view.

World Jewry would, I am sure, be willing to take the entire cost of the maintenance of this Force on its own shoulders; the money spent on it would be well invested, for it would be the training centre of Palestinian volunteers. Such a training would instil a sense of responsibility, and enable young Jewry the more readily to follow steadfastly in the simple but sublime footsteps of their heroic forefathers.

As soon as I got back to England, I had an interview with the Adjutant-General at the War Office, and requested that the savage sentences pa.s.sed on the young Americans at Belah should be revised.

Although the Adjutant-General was most sympathetic, he could not, at the moment, see his way to interfere, so I then wrote to the Prime Minister to let him know that these American soldiers had been very harshly treated and were still imprisoned in the Citadel at Cairo. I pointed out that it was hardly sound policy to offend a powerful ally by inflicting such a barbarous sentence on men who had come over the seas as volunteers to help us in the Great War. I therefore begged him to have their case investigated.

The result of this letter was that the men were speedily released and went back to their homes in the United States.

CHAPTER x.x.xV.

THE JERUSALEM POGROM.

Shortly after my return to England events occurred in Palestine which prove up to the hilt all that I have written with regard to the anti-Jewish att.i.tude of certain members of the E.E.F. Staff.

A veritable "pogrom," such as we have hitherto only a.s.sociated with Tsarist Russia, took place in the Holy City of Jerusalem in April, 1920, and as this was the climax to the maladministration of the Military Authorities, I consider that the facts of the case should be made public.

To the observant onlooker it was quite evident that the hostile policy pursued by the Administration must inevitably lead to outbreaks against the Jews. An intelligent people, such as the Arabs, could not be blind to the anti-Jewish course being steered.

The Balfour Declaration, that divinely inspired message to the people of Israel, was never allowed to be officially published within the borders of Palestine; the Hebrew language was proscribed; there was open discrimination against the Jews; the Jewish Regiment was at all times kept in the background and treated as a pariah. This official att.i.tude was interpreted by the hooligan element and interested schemers in the only possible way, viz., that the military authorities in Palestine were against the Jews and Zionism, and the conviction began to grow, in some native minds at least, that any act calculated to deal a death blow to Zionist aspirations would not be unwelcome to those in authority in the Holy Land.

Moreover, this malign influence was sometimes strengthened by very plain speaking. The Military Governor of an important town was actually heard to declare in a Y.M.C.A. Hut, in the presence of British and French Officers, and of Arab waiters, that in case of anti-Jewish riots in his city, he would remove the garrison and take up his position at a window, where he could watch, and laugh at, what went on!

This amazing declaration was reported to the Acting Chief Administrator, and the Acting Chief Political Officer, but no action was taken against the Governor. Only one interpretation can be placed on such leniency.

In March, 1920, the following extraordinary order was issued to the troops in Palestine:--"As the Government _has to pursue_ in Palestine a policy unpopular with the majority of the population, trouble may be expected to arise between the Jews and the Arabs." This wording is very significant. It was obviously calculated to throw the blame for any trouble on the Jews, at the same time representing the Government as an unfortunate victim, who, under some mysterious pressure, "_has to pursue_" a Zionist policy.

The moment I heard that a certain officer was to be appointed to an important post in Palestine I felt it my duty to warn the Chief Zionist leader of the evil that would follow such an appointment, and told him that in the interests not only of Jewry, but of England, it was necessary that he should make a public protest against the appointment of this official. Although I warned Dr. Weizmann of the dangers that would follow, he was loth to believe that a British Officer would be disloyal to the policy laid down by his Government. The good Doctor had not suffered with the Jewish Battalion and did not realize the situation or the intrigues that were in the air. So far as I am aware, no protest was made and this official was duly appointed. I feared for the future, not so much on account of the Jews, as on account of the harm that would be done to the prestige and good name of England, and the result will show that my fears were only too well grounded.

Within a few months of this appointment, public anti-Zionist demonstrations were permitted throughout the land. These manifestations took the form of processions through the streets with drums beating and banners flying, the chanting of fanatical verses against the Jews being a feature of these displays. In Jaffa inflammatory speeches were delivered from the steps of the Military Governor's office, in the presence of British officials, calling for the extermination of Zionism.

Arab papers were allowed to write the most outrageous articles against the Jews, while on the other hand, if a Jewish paper dared to say the least word of protest, it was immediately called to account.

With these significant happenings taking place before their eyes, and feeling that they would get little or no protection from the Military Administration, the Jews clearly saw that it was absolutely essential for their own safety to form a Self-Defence Corps, for purely protective purposes. This they did, and Lieutenant Jabotinsky was entrusted with the command. This officer, with the full knowledge of the Administration, enrolled a body of young men and trained them in case of need.