The Maccabaean

Special Correspondent of THE MACCABAEAN in Palestine

"Town plan is not a matter of drawing board,compasses and ruler, but of geography,history and present requirements."

PATRICK GEDDES, Professor of Sociology and Civics at the University of Bombay, a former Professor of Botany, senior resident of University Hall, Edinburgh, Director of the Cities and Town Planning Exhibition, is, according to Who's Who, a geographer, biologist, historian, art student, social economist and civic reformer, a demonstrator of physiology and botany, a lecturer on natural history, a traveler, an explorer, an educator, his educational work (besides teaching) consisting mainly in the organization of University Halls at Edinburgh and Chelsea. He is the creator of Outlook Tower—"a regional, geographic and synthetic type museum, with associated undertakings of geotechnic and social purposes, e. g., city improvement, gardens, parks, etc." He is also a publisher, interested in promoting Celtic and general literature and art. But this is not all. Professor Geddes is also a biographer. His "Life of Sir P. C. Boss," the great Indian physicist and psychologist, has just been published.

In approaching men like Geddes one should see the man first and turn over his books, plans and biographical data afterwards. One should listen to him talk and watch at close range his kaleidoscopic brain at work. One should not attempt to interview Geddes; one should rather be prepared for a great mental shower. Then one discovers that Geddes the geographer, the biologist, the historian, art student, social economist, civic reformer, traveler, explorer, educator, creator of unique and synthetic institutions, and publisher is singularly on speaking terms with each phase of himself. You cannot draw any hard and fast lines, and say, here ends Geddes the geographer and here begins Geddes the economist. All his profound knowledge, marvelous versatility and wide experience have been blended into a perfect and peculiar theory of life. But although he is almost omniscient, he is without the follies of the class of people who "know it all"; versatile, exuberantly versatile, he is not in the least pedantic; experienced, he does not breathe the air of boredom which frequently mark those to whom it has been given to see and to do and to live much. Geddes is an animated talker, but also a sympathetic listener—he organizes his ideas while listening. He is a most charitable admirer of other men's efforts, except where they are indisputably in the wrong direction. He can be almost annihilating in his criticism of such work, while retaining a kindly attitude towards the maker. Being a democrat of the first water, he does not question your right to talk to him, to question him. He is, in short, a delightful, good-natured Scotchman.

I waited for him in Dr. Weizmann's Jerusalem apartment. He came in animated, as usual, flushed, evidently, with a discovery he had made in one of his perambulations, looking as disreputable as ever. (The left patch pocket of his plain white duck suit was completely severed.) While waiting for a cup of tea his eye had caught a Levantine French paper. Geddes read over the leading article, which started out as a philosophical discourse and ended in a political harangue. It amused Geddes. I should say he was intellectually entertained by it. That article, I think, confirmed his

rather crushing opinion of journalists: a people—if I remember rightly—"who live in nocturnal dreams and fears."

I had come to ask Geddes about the Jerusalem Town Plan, his plans to Haifa and Tiberias, and about the Hebrew University. In less than five minutes I saw that Geddes had the rare and happy faculty of bringing all his essential knowledge and experience and grasp upon the problem immediately before him. I saw that he had brought them to bear on Jerusalem. It was reassuring. You could see that he was no standardizer, that he was not going to apply a certain idea because that idea had succeeded elsewhere. You could see that he essentially believed in "history, geography and present requirements" forming the basis of a town plan.

WANTED—A SURVEY OF JERUSALEM

And so I asked him if it was true, as it happened to be reported in one of the papers that day, that the Jerusalem plan was completed. He replied that he was not aware of it. The planning was delayed because of lack of contours and absence of survey. Steps were taken by the Municipal and Zionist Commission engineers to survey the new city. The old city did not want surveying. The interior was perfect. It was possible to do what had been done in the walled city by Mr. Ashbee, the present Civic Adviser, to clean the walls, inside and outside; to look after their beauty, because their survey was so perfect. But you cannot plan new roads or suburbs without survey, without drawing your contours. (A remeasurement of the position of the University site brings out a discrepancy of no less than one hundred metres from that given on the present general rough plan of the city and environs.) There must be a thorough re-correction and re-surveying before completing the actual planning of the town.

THE PRO-JERUSALEM SOCIETY

Meanwhile, whatever was done by any person or agency to beautify Jerusalem should be heartily welcomed. Beauty is the index of health. Health, civilization—all make for beauty. The Pro-Jerusalem Society was the sort of society which tried to promote the health, wealth and civilization of the city. It has promoted and is promoting many useful purposes, and is helping Jerusalem in many ways. It has revived the weaving industry and the tile-making industry. But its moral benefits are greater, perhaps, than the actual. It has succeeded in uniting people to the different creeds to work for useful purposes, tending to improve the city, the social unit of humanity. The Pro-Jerusalem Society should give rise to Pro-Jaffa, Pro-Haifa, etc., societies. It has already prompted the people of Colombo, the capital of Ceylon, to inquire whether they cannot have a Pro-Colombo Society, where Christian, Moslem, Hindu, mostly Buddhist Hindu, could unite on a program of civic usefulness.

A MODERN ORIENTAL JEWISH STYLE

But if you cannot actually plan for the moment, you can certainly see the mistakes that have been made through plan-