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small landed aristocracy and the leading families through whom for the most part the Ottoman Government ruled the country.
The Turkish dominion over Palestine, which began in the year 1516, suffered little interruption, save from risings by in- dividuals who had assumed some local importance, until 1831, when the forces of Mehemet Ah, the Governor of Egypt, con- quered the country. The Egyptian occupation lasted only until 1840 when, with the assistance of other countries including England, the Turks regained Palestine and those parts of their old Empire to the north of Palestine which they had temporarily lost nine years before.
From the time of the reconquest the Ottoman Government took steps to reduce the powers of the local Sheikhs and to fill the more important administrative appointments by their own nominees. In consequence, the state of public security improved and European powers took a greater direct interest in the coun- try, establishing representatives there during the latter part of the nineteenth century. At this stage it is probable that there were in Palestine only a very small number of Jews congre- gated for the most part in those towns in Palestine which are particularly sacred to orthodox Jewry. During the forty years immediately before the Great War various causes operated to bring about a considerable Jewish immigration to Palestine and the settlement of Jews in agricultural colonies there. It would be out of place for us to attempt to analyse the causes of this increase, nor does it seem necessary for us to trace its develop- ment. Suffice it to say that on the one hand the creation and growth of the Zionist movement and on the other the assistance of philanthropic enterprises, such as those established by Baron Edmond de Rothschild, led to a steady increase in the number of Jews living in Palestine, until at the outbreak of the War the total Jewish population of the country amounted to at least 60,000. This increase was achieved in the face of opposition from some sections of Turkish opinion which, on occasion, was ventilated in the Central Government at Constantinople and was usually placated by a promise—never effectively fulfilled— that some check would be placed on the progress of this new movement.
The first few years of the present century were a period of disturbance in Turkish politics culminating in the revolution of 1908 and the grant of the Constitution of that year. These events were not without their repercussion in Palestine, as is shown by the following passage quoted from a report which the Committee on Local Government in Palestine made to the High Commissioner on the 2nd of June, 1924 :—
“The Ottoman Constitution of 1908 had awakened new hopes among the subject races of the Empire. In various provinces, and in Syria and Palestine in particular, a widespread movement took place in favour of decentralization which had in 1912 assumed such
