Lawrence of Arabia, Zionism and Palestine - The World War I ...

96 ZIONISM AND PALESTINE
instead of being largely diverted to Constantinople;
and certain wealthy endowments, sequestered by the
Porte eighty years before, were returned to the Waqf
authority. Apart from other direct benefactions, there
can be no doubt whatever that all the material and
some of the intellectual amenities of life were multiplied
by the stimulus of Jewish resources fostered under
a British Administration. It might have been supposed
that a Chamber of Commerce would be unobnoxious
to religious sectarianism, even in Jerusalem; yet its
inception was for a while suspended because Moslems,
though constantly proclaiming their identity of interest
with their Christian brethren, were holding out for
larger representation.
This unhappy attitude was accentuated by a tendency
frequently observable in peoples (and in persons)
recently liberated from long and tyrannical oppression.
Nothing, as the British found in Egypt of the 'eighties,
could be more immediately delightful than to succeed
an Ottoman Turkish regime. For the first few weeks
all is joy, hope and passionate gratitude. But it is not
long before the late victims begin to discover that
British prosperity is less immediate than they had
hoped, and that meanwhile the irksome payment of
taxes or compliance with new-fangled sanitary regulations
can no longer be evaded by influence or bakshish.
"By Allah !" things were better under the Othmanli. 1
(Moses himself went through this on the frequent occasions
when the whole congregation murmured against
him.) They also discover that under the mild impersonal
British rule lapses from manners (hitherto ruinous) pass
unnoticed, anyhow unpunished: and some will soon
venture upon presumptions and rudenesses they would
never have attempted under their former masters.
1Their extremists overreached or stultified themselves when,
for instance, the Mufti declared to the Royal Commission: " Under
the Ottoman Constitution the Arabs enjoyed all rights and privileges
political and otherwise, on an equal basis with the Turks" !