* * * * * "On the other hand, if we get a Firman from Sultan for the Palestine Canal-- "1. We lose the sacred sites of Jordan River, Capernaum, Bethsaida, and Tiberias, Jericho, not Engedi. "2. We swamp a notoriously unhealthy valley, where there are no missions. "3. We cut off the pest of the country of Palestine, the Bedouins. "4. We are free of all four objections _in re_ occupation of Egypt. "5. We gain the fertile lands of Moab and Ammon. "6. Cyprus is 150 miles from the Mediterranean _débouché_. "7. We get a waterway for large ships to within fifty miles of Damascus. "8. We can never be bothered by any internal commotion, except for the twenty-five miles from Haifa to Tiberias, for the waterway of the Canal would be ten miles wide, except in Arabah Valley, where there are on both sides wastes and deserts. "9. We get rid of unhealthiness of a narrow cut with no current, which is the case with Suez Canal now, where the mud is pestilential from ships' refuse and no current. "10. It would isolate Palestine, render it quiet from Bedouins; it would pave the way to its being like Belgium, under no Great Power, for religious views would be against Palestine ever being owned by a Great Power. "11. Up the ladder of Tyre to Gaza would be 10,000 square miles; population 130,000, quite a small country. "Do not quote me if you write this. Oddly enough, Ezekiel xlvii. 10 seems to say the Dead Sea shall have fish like the great Sea (_i.e._ Mediterranean). Zechariah xiv. speaks of two rivers, one going to Dead Sea, the other to Mediterranean. "The cost would be-- Canal from Haifa to Jordan, £2,000,000 Compensation to Jordan peoples, 1,000,000 Canal through Akabah, 6,000,000 Ports at Haifa, 1,000,000 Ports at Akabah, 500,000 ___________ £10,500,000 =========== say, twelve to fifteen millions, and what a comfort to be free of Egypt and Soudan for ever! "Revenue, Palestine, £120,000, of which £80,000 goes to Sultan. Do not quote _me_, for I have written part of this to Mr W. (the late Sir William) Mackinnon of B.I.S.N.C., besides which H.M. Government may object. You may say you had a letter from a correspondent."