On Julian's Way

"I think of him as one of the great soldier-statesmen of all time. ... I dare to say that his name will be remembered when most of the other generals in the Great War are forgotten, for it is associated with the land that is still sacred to the people of three world-religions."

Thus last week was Field Marshal Sir Edmund Henry Hynman Allenby, Viscount Allenby, introduced by Dr. John Huston Finley of the New York Times to a U. S. radio audience. Dr. Finley was lunching in Manhattan with Y. M. C. A. men. Lord Allenby was in Jerusalem, the city he delivered to the Allies in 1917. He had returned there to dedicate the finest Y. M. C. A. building in the world, to deliver the first radio speech ever internationally broadcast from Palestine to the U. S.

The Y. M. C. A. has worked in Jerusalem since 1878 but it did not get adequate quarters until after the War. Few years ago. on Julian's Way outside the old part of the city, there began to arise a long,

Byzantine building in rose, ochre and brown stone, with two domed wings and high in the centre a Jesus Tower, visible for miles. In this plant are reading, writing, game and music rooms, an auditorium, swimming pool, gymnasium, cafeteria, trade school, all with the most modern equipment. One room is an exact replica of the one in London in which George Williams, dry goods clerk, helped found the first Y. M. C. A. in 1844. The Juilliard Musical Foundation has given a fine organ, the American Bible Society a copy of the Bible in every language it publishes. Most of the building's total cost -- $1,000,000 -- was donated by the late James Newbegin Jarvie, Montclair (N. J.) sugar and coffee merchant, friend of Archibald Clinton Harte, who as Jerusalem secretary conceived the idea of a great building and carried forward the plans.

On the Jesus Tower are inscriptions in Hebrew, Arabic and Aramaic. Not with out tact must the Y. M. C. A. be, for Jerusalem seethes with 52,000 Jews, 19,000 Moslems, 19,000 assorted Christians. Fortnight ago when Lord Allenby ap peared in Jerusalem, there were angry mutterings in Arab newspapers. Veiled Moslem women paraded making bitter speeches. To them it seemed that the Y. M. C. A. planned to proselytize with its fine new building. But they were mis taken. And other Jerusalemites were less truculent because they had already seen how the Y. M. C. A. operates.

Secretary Harte reached retirement age in 1925 but stayed on the job until 1930, saw his building completed. As his succes sor the Y. M. C. A. chose "the luckiest man in the War." Lieut. Waldo Huntley Heinrichs. A onetime Y. M. C. A. man in Honolulu and in India, Lieut. Heinrichs went from theological seminary into avia tion. He saw Lieut. Quentin Roosevelt shot down in France, had three escapes from death in mid-air himself. In the Battle of St. Mihiel he fell 3,000 ft., got off with ten wounds. He won a Croix de Guerre with palm, bars and citations. "Luckiest Man" Heinrichs, dapper and kinetic, has won to his side at the new Jerusalem Y. M. C. A. men of many faiths. In his tennis club are 31 Orthodox Greeks, 31 Protestants, eleven Roman Catholics, ten Moslems, nine Jews, seven Gregorians, one Baha'i. Last summer he put on a Y. M. C. A. cross country race with policemen, army officers. Jewish and Arab athletes. The race began near the spot where first broke out the series of Arab-Jewish Wailing Wall riots.

The new Jerusalem Y. M. C. A. building has been in use for some time (the King & Queen of the Belgians saw it during a recent visit). But its formal dedication was deferred until last week to coincide with the soth anniversary of the incorporation of Y. M. C. A.'s International Committee. (Y. M. C. A. now works in 56 lands, with 1,606,376 members and $280,384,093 in property.) Y. M. C. A. luncheons all over the U. S. tuned in on the broadcast, heard Lord Allenby say: ''Here ... is erected an international monument to Peace and Brotherhood. Under its shadow, jarring sectarians may cease from wrangling; fierce passions be tamed; and men's minds be drawn to loftier ideals. . . ."

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