A Jew Errant •
NORMAN BENTWICH is entitled to claim that he was born a Zionist and that his father was one before him. Bentwich pert was a disciple of Herzl, and he paid a visit to the Holy Land in 1897—long before the cruising-era. Bentwich fils first went there .in 1908 and saw the early Jewish colonies. " The Jewish farmer in those days was a ' Boaz,' superintending and directing, and Jewish agricultural labourers were scarcely known. The Arab fellahin did most of the rough work in the Jewish fields and orchards." He accepted a legal appointment in Egypt in 1912, because Egypt was next door to Palestine, received a com- mission in the Camel Transport Corps in 1915, and reached his goal in 1918 as Procurator-General of Occupied Enemy Territory Administration (South). He was still holding that appointment— with the less breathless, title of Attorney-General of Palestine— in 1931 when the Labour Government required him to relinquish it on the singular ground that " the difficulties with which the Administration have contended owing to the peculiar political and racial position of Palestine would not be diminished by your retention of the office of Attorney-General." The general applica- tion of this criterion might have seriously depleted the public service at home and abroad ; a single resort to it served the immediate purpose.
Mr. Bentwich bears no malice and seldom employs a sharper weapon than that of reticence. (" It was not then a disqualifica- tion for office to be a Jew and a Zionist" is his nearest approach to bitterness.) His narrative should be welcome to all who seek a considered and dispassionate appreciation of personalities and tendencies in Palestine. It will disappoint those in quest d scandal and sensation. He saw Palestine in the- worst years only as a visitor and passes no judgements. But he has continued Ins work for the chosen race, if not in the promised land, and his record of efforts to alleviate the lot of Jewish victims of persecu- tion elsewhere is a gallant story, if on the whole a sad one— the story of " a Jew errant, wandering between two worlds, one
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