IT IS understood that the status quo in Palestine was discussed during Mr. Austen, Chamberlain’s interviews in Rome with the Pope and Cardinal Gasparri. The situation is very delicate. For some time Roman Catholics have urged that the status quo should be referred to the League of Nations, and that the various privileges of Latins, Greeks, Armenians, Syrians, and Copts in the Holy Places should be reconsidered. Latins deny that the rights enjoyed by the Greeks have any historical justification, and before a League of Nations Committee they would unquestionably claim very much more than they now possess. With Russia no longer officially Christian, and not even a member of the League, Roman Catholic influence would be predominant and Greek privileges would almost certainly be curtailed. . . The British Government’s position with regard to religious controversies in Palestine is made more difficult by its whole-hearted patronage of Zionism. The leaders of all British parties agree in their approval of a policy which, in our opinion, is certain sooner or later to lead to serious trouble and which is detested by the Palestinians, Christians and Moslems alike. Mr. Ormsby Gore, a member of the present Government, is a particularly zealous Zionist. The Roman Church is officially neither pro-Zionist nor anti-Zionist, but the Latin Patriarch in Jerusalem, an extremely able ecclesiastic, is the constant guardian of Christian sentiment against Jewish aggression and sometimes Jewish insolence. The consequence is the ever-growing prestige in Palestine of the Patriarch and the Church that he represents.

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