Even greater was the eagerness of the Prime Minister Ibrahim
Pasha Hashin for an accentuation of the spiritual elements in the life and education of his country. Nearby in , Palestine religious issues are so much complicated by politics, by racial strife and denominational disputes that it was very hard to gauge their genuineness. In Transjordan the air was purer, the emotions seemed more balanced. There was less distortion in the attitude of the people towards religion. Both the Prime Minister and the Minister of Education stressed the importance of an adequate religious education. Yet they both implied that their circumscribed powers and the finances of their land prevented them from living up to their highest educational ideals.
Nevertheless much has already been done in Transjordan. The Inspector of Education and most of the schoolmasters have tackled the problem of education—probably the most important in all the near-Eastern countries—with genuine ardour ; and notwithstanding the primitiveness of the school buildings and of their equipment, the schools are becoming real cells of cultural advancement.
I spoke to several other leading citizens, judges and sheiks at Amman. Most of them seemed to convey, not in actual words but by allusion and an almost imperceptible under- current to their remarks : " If only our means were adequate to our natural possibilities, what could we not do, and what an important part could not Transjordan play in the affairs of the Near East ! " None of them dreamt of mentioning that the problems of foreign politics, of protecting their frontiers and keeping peace at home have been almost completely taken over by their British advisers and organisers, and that they could therefore devote more time and energy to the furtherance of what they claim to be their most cherished aims than could the leaders of a State without such facilities.
Yet even a brief visit to Transjordan clearly shows the discrepancy between what the country is at present able to do, and what under different conditions it might achieve.
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