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 (ii) Christians

The Christians in Palestine are for the most part settled in clearly defined local communities. There are about 12,000 in Jerusalem, 10,000 in Bethlehem, about 3,000 in Jaffa, and there are in addition a few Christian villages in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem. There is also a very considerable settlement of Christians who are partly Arab in race and speech beyond the Jordan, notably at Es-Salt. The overwhelming majority of the Christians in Judaea belong to Orthodox sects; in Jerusalem there are twice as many Orthodox as Catholics. The bulk of the Christians are interested, directly or indirectly, in the Holy Places and the pilgrims' traffic. However, in the villages round Jerusalem, and notably in Bethlehem, they engage in agricultural production, and must be regarded as an important element in the Palestinian local population.

The politics of Orthodoxy are in a transitional stage. Hitherto there has been a tendency to gravitate more and more into the orbit of Russia. Before the war large sums of money were received from Russia, and an annual flow of Russian pilgrims sustained the growing connection. The war and the Russian revolution have diverted this line of development. A certain number of the leading Orthodox clerics are now turning to the Kingdom of Greece; but, among many others, and the laity in particular, there are signs of the growth of the idea of a local Orthodox Church, autonomous and centred round the autonomous Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem.

Catholics tend to fall into two very distinct groups. These two groups centre round the Italian Franciscans and the French clerics respectively. The head of the Franciscans is the Custode della Terra Santa, who lives in the Franciscan Convent attached to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

The Franciscans are in possession of the more important rights in connection with the Holy Places so