The Keys of ‘Akká

Major Wellesley Tudor Pole, a British officer who visited ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Haifa after its capture in 1918, gave this account in The Chosen Highway:

“Another incident of those stirring times is worthy of record, although I am not able to vouch for its complete accuracy at first hand. Before the fall of Haifa, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was discussing the British campaign with a few of His followers in His garden one day. He then predicted that, contrary to the general expectation, the taking of Haifa and the walled town of ‘Akká would come about almost without bloodshed. This prediction was verified by the facts. He also stated that the Turks would surrender ‘Akká (supposed to be impregnable) to two unarmed British soldiers. The resultant facts so far as I was able to gather them were as follows:—

“Subsequent to the entry of our troops into Haifa, the front line was pushed forward half-way across the Bay of ‘Akká, and outposts were placed in position on the sands of the Bay some four miles from ‘Akká itself. ‘Akká, as a fortified and walled town, was believed to be filled with Turkish troops at this time. Very early one morning two British Army Service soldiers, who had lost their bearings in the night, found themselves at the gates of ‘Akká, believing erroneously that the town was already in British hands. However, the Turkish rearguard troops had been secretly evacuated only eight hours earlier, and the Mayor of the town, seeing British soldiers outside the gates, came down and presented them with the keys of the town in token of surrender! It is credibly stated that the dismayed Tommies, being unarmed, dropped the keys and made post haste for the British lines!”

Source: Lady Blomfield, The Chosen Highway (account of Major W. Tudor Pole); also quoted in H. M. Balyuzi, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá: The Centre of the Covenant, pp. 428–429.

Collected from bahaistories.com (Subject: intuition).

Various. *bahaistories.com archive*. https://bahaistories.com/subject/intuition