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to the resumption of the suspended works, was therefore confined to the following paragraph :—
“‘Tt is a matter of regret to this Executive that His Excellency should have rendered a decision in regard to one portion of the question of the Wailing Wall before rendering a comprehensive de- cision covering the principal matters at issue. In the opinion of this Executive a partial or piecemeal treatment of this problem is almost certain to lead to avoidable difficulty, misunderstanding and quite possibly injustice.’’
In the remainder of his letter Mr. Sacher submitted a request that the Palestine Government would take steps to put an end te two practices which were said to cause annoyance and dis- turbance to Jewish worshippers at the Wall and in consequence to contravene the condition implied in the letters relating to the grant of permission for the resumption of the building operations in the neighbourhood of the Wall. These practices were (i) the calling to prayer by the muezzin, who, as we have mentioned, took up his station five times a day on the roof of the house now used as a Zawiyah, and (ii) the playing of music, accompanied by shouting, in the garden at the northern end of the pavement facing the Wall.
The calling of the muezzin was not stopped; the question was, a8 the Law Officers had said, one of the degree of annoy- ance or provocation caused by the calling to prayer, and it may be that the Palestine Government decided that this ceremony, taking place as it did at set times, could not legitimately be prohibited.
The playing of music was an innovation even more recent than was the calling to prayer. The Mufti of Jerusalem said in evidence that this playing was part of a ceremony known as the Zikr and that the literal meaning of that term is ‘‘ the repetition of the name of God.’’ He also said that the per- formance of the ceremony of the Zikr, including the playing of music, was a ritual obligation mmposed upon the Mughrabis of the Abu Madian Waof as a condition of their residence on the property of the Wagqf and that this obligation had been fulfilled in previous times. Be that as it may, it would appear that the ceremony had not been performed within recent times in the neighbourhood of the pavement until, at the earliest, sometime in the month of May of 1929. The music which accompanied this ceremony had been the subject of a previous complaint by the Jewish authorities and Mr. Luke on the 5th of July— the very day on which Mr. Sacher wrote his letter—had suc- ceeded in bringing about its cessation by the use of his personal influence with the Mufti of Jerusalem.
At this stage of events the Chief Rabbinate were not aware that permission had been granted for the resumption of the building operations in the neighbourhood of the Wailing Wall. Both the Chief Rabbis, a member of the Va’ad Leumi (the
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