MIDDLE EAST JOURNEY
By KENNETH LINDSAY, M.P.
IHREE months ago I left England to give some lectures to the Royal Navy, and promised also to speak for the British Council
in places where there were British Institutes. On reaching Malta, I found that the late Governor, a devoted friend of Malta, had been booed at a football match. On arriving at Cairo I got mixed up in the riots, and had literally to watch my step. In Palestine I have seen enormous damage done to military establishments. Next to me in a Jewish hospital lies a gallant British police officer with half a leg left for his retirement in England. Indeed, as I have spent some four weeks in-hospital, partly in Cairo and partly in Jerusalem, there has been an interval for reflection on this phenomenon of so-called anti-British feeling.
Let me return to Malta. Although my main business was with the Navy, and my contract or assignment was to tell the sailors some- thing of our domestic problems, I was anxious to meet some Maltese. This proved difficult. Eventually, with the help of the British Institute, I was invited to a Maltese home where a keen young group was rehearsing Clifford Bax's Without a Thorn. Eventually there were some twenty of us, mostly young. We had a sumptuous meal and then sang songs, old and new. As this particular home was hard by the- W.R.N.S. hostel, I inquired whether any of the girls had made friends. "No," came the sad reply. " They are
not alkAved to mix with us." This story could be multiplied. The thirst for knowledge about English books, plays, music and, above all, for personal friendship, the hopelessly unsatisfied demand for edu- cation (to which Miss Wilkinson can bear testimony from her hurried visit) was everywhere evident.
In Alexandria and Cairo, after fulfilling my Service assignments to Army and Air Force, as well as Navy, I sought to meet Egyptians and look at some of their schools. Once again it was evident that our diplomatic circles were out of touch with the young movements. Here again I must except the Health and Labour attaches (recent innovation) and the British Council. At the British Institute I met two dozen graduates of the University which I represent in Parlia- ment. Throughout the riot full attendance was maintained at an Education Week run by the Institute. Still more interesting, I found throughout the Middle East the remarkable influence of one man, 'Reed, Headmaster of Victoria College. Scores of Ministers and high Egyptian officials still send their sons to Victoria College. At this moment the Cairo branch of the College has a waiting list of 400 and is threatened with .closure owing to lack of financial support. Much more could be written about recent years in Egypt, but I am prepared to say that the riots need never have occurred, if a few imaginative steps had been taken six months ago. The main point now is that the Government has handsomely done the right thing by sending Lord Stansgate, with the prospect of Mr. Bevin to follow.
As for Palestine, I can only say : This is the failure of a mandate. We are all to blame. One has only to compare the expenditure on security with that on health and education to realise the measure of the tragedy. Seventy per cent. of keen Arab children cannot obtain education because there are no schools or teachers. A very limited number have been given access to higher academic standards ; some good school-gardens exist and one trade school. How differ- ently the Jewish children fare, with scores of spacious schools, half a dozen vitally interesting experiments in the settlements, kinder- gartens, school lunches, a higher technical college and the Hebrew University on Mount Scopus, which faces me as I write. Palestine has two systems, one Arabic and one Hebrew. Many of the staff on each side belong to militant nationalist movements. Education is here indeed an instrument of opposing nationalist policies. It is in vain for the noble Dr. Magnes to urge a bi-national state as long as there is no common loyalty fostered in the schools. Here once again the only terrain on which it has becn possible to see Arabs and Jews together has been the few remaining Christian schools and the classes of the British Institute in Haifa and Jerusalem.
What is the upshot of all this? First, British sailors, airmen, soldiers and police are being asked to do most distasteful things, and are frankly tired of it all. Secondly, we need an intelligible policy in Malta, Egypt and Palestine, as well as throughout the Middle Fast. Thirdly, British officials and whatever chosen instru- ment is to replace the British Council must represent m their persons and functions a different approach to the Oriental mind. I am deeply conscious that brilliant exceptions must be counted in this somewhat generalised criticism. Last, and perhaps most important, our scholars and philosophers must find common meeting-points for the Christian, Muslim and Judaist faiths. Intolerance is the child of ignorance. Some voice, outside Government as well as inside, a Churchill or a Smuts, must appeal to the world, not only to Europe but to the Middle East, to stop the inhumanity to Jewry which is now so sadly manifesting itself in the Arab world as well as in Europe.
Britain has a big moral task to perform in the Middle East. In spite of booings, riots and shootings, there is a strong personal trust which even in the last year has become very firm in Cyrenaica and Tripoli through the wise administration of ex-Sudanese officials. I have not mentioned Russia in these notes for one main reason. Only a positive policy can match Russian penetration, and that policy must be concerned with other things than oil and com- munications, important though these may be. Russia is not wanted, but if a vacuum is left by British neutrality or ineptitude, Russia will win adherents. Britain's moral task now consists in offering the best possible counsel to a dozen young Governments, whq in some cases are forced to skip centuries in changing from autocracy and subservience to democracy and responsibility. This can be an exciting and challenging episode in the evolution of British foreign policy.
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