PALESTINE
A report has reached the English Section of the Jewish Battalion in Palestine has just had its first experience of actual warfare. The conduct of the men on the field of battle has been praised in the whole state by other fearlessness and courage, but also of the skill with which they captured new terrain and consolidated their gains.
The British authorities have announced their intention of establishing Civil Courts of Justice in the occupied districts of Palestine. The court of Appeals will be in Jerusalem, and the court of First Instance located at Jerusalem and Jaffa respectively, with special courts in those districts (Kazas) where there is no Court of First Instance. Local law, which is exceptional for unaltered provisions arising from the military operations and the special Turkish Legislation.
The Jaffa Bureau reports that the Duke of Connaught and General Allenby paid a visit to Rischon-le-Zion under the escort of the Zionist country Gluskin and Vinnig. They were amazed at the wine-cellars for which this colony is famous, and were altogether extremely pleased with the progressive spirit of the colony.
The activity of the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts in Jerusalem has increased again since the British occupation of Palestine. Although it has been necessary to close the carpet at well about 600 craftsmen are now active in the ateliers for silver, metal and wood. The British officers in Jerusalem prove excellent customers for the work of the Bezalel and craftsmen for the purpose of the bezalel silver.
Five new kindergarten schools with an attendance of about 300 have been opened in Jerusalem since the British occupation.
A letter received from Safed pictures terrible conditions among the Jewish population of the city. There is no bread at all to be created the products. Every day people are drinking from starvation. The letter tells how young and old lie around the cemetery, which is the center of activity in the unhappy city today, plucked from the graves.
RUSSIA
There has been formed in Petrograd the "Society for the Economic Petroleum of Palestine." Within a few weeks it has acquired a membership of 250, among whom are many well known doctors, lawyers, engineers, agricultural staff and subdivided into the departments of building, electricity, communications, and industry. In these departments we have acquired the water power of the Jerusalem and the Jaffa agricultural section for the present devoting all its energy to the solution of the erection problem in Palestine. In addition to these treasurers, J. Grunberg, shares to the amount of 90,000 rubles for the establishment of factories in Palestine.
The "Zebulum" ship company has been founded in Charkov. This company will run ships between Black Sea and Mediterranean ports and establish depots in the ports of Palestine.
Under the name of "Raananijah," a Jewish company with a capital of 10 million rubles has been formed in Moscow for the purpose of developing lands in those districts of Palestine which have not yet been rendered available.
The Jewish Correspondence Bureau at the Hague has received a report from Vienna that Pogroms have again occurred at Jaruslawa, and that the 34th infantry regiment participated in the outrage. According to a cable received by the Zionist Organization of America through British officials the authorities refuse to take any action in the matter.
The pro-German "White Guard" government of England has been admitted to the country by the end of September, and the district councils have been ordered to refuse to give food to any Jew after that date.
New anti-Jewish excesses are reported to have taken place at Lemberg, Strij, Wiebseka and several other states in East Germany.
According to a report in the Kiewskaja Mistal on May 17th the Ukraine is to be reorganized so as to consist of 60 members, of
whom 24 will be Zionist; 9, members of the United Jewish Socialist Labor Parties; 6, members of the Agudath Yisrael; 6, members of the Poale Zion; 10, members of the Bund; and 5, members of the People's Party.
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ENGLAND
The British Foreign Office has decided that Ottoman subjects of Jewish Nationality residing in the restrictions applicable to exempt from the Greek Government has adopted a like ruling with regard to the Jews of Salonika.
From London comes an account of a meeting between the members of the American Zionist Medical Unit and the Jewish Battalion.
The Jewish Colonial Trust, with the permission of the British Treasury, has recently issued 100,000 new pound shares. Active propaganda for the sale of the shares has been set in motion by a committee appointed for the purpose of the United States of America is 70,000 shares of which over 50,000 have already been taken up.
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UNITED STATES
Mr. Jacob H. Schiff has given $25,000 to the Hebrew University in the form of 5,000 shares in the Jewish Colonial Trust.
Zionist students in Pennsylvania are making an intensive study of agricultural conditions in Palestine with the object in view of ultimately settling in that country and aiding in its agricultural development. (A special article on this school appears elsewhere in this issue.)
The Zionist Organization of America is carrying on a campaign to enroll 250,000 members under the district of Organization, Mr. Lipsky, Secretary for Propaganda, Chicago and Cleveland, in order to further the project and explain the workings of the new system of affiliation.
Alex Karlin, a soldier at the United States of America has sent $5,000 out of his monthly wage of $30.00 to the Organization for the purchase of a share in the Jewish Colonial Trust. "I feel in the doing," he says, "that my money earned by the course of Liberty will equally go to the Cause of Liberty."
Two-eighty-two
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Original from NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
