Development of Palestine along modern industrial and agricultural lines, “spurred and strengthened” by the war, has made that country a “going concern”, ripe for investment capital, it is pointed out in the 18th annual report of the Palestine Economic Corporation, released today. This investment capital can make it possible to provide jobs for new immigrants, the report adds.
The war, instead of halting Palestine’s growth, actually has stimulated its economy and made possible the maintenance of large numbers of new settlers, the report explains. “Palestine has been able to absorb more than 210,000 immigrants in the past ten years, and it is today the world’s most successful modern example of colonization,” it asserts.
“Palestine stands on its own feet economically,” says Robert Szold, chairman of the board of directors, in an introductory statement to the corporation’s 1,400 American stockholders. Capital invested in the country with normal prudence may expect a return, he declares, adding that “the Palestine Economic Corporation, with its social-economic program, has been one of the pioneer forces in bringing Palestine to its present immigrant-absorbing status. It now plans for expansion of its work.”
The Palestine Economic Corporation, which has capital reserves and surplus in excess of $3,500,000, regards its task as merely begun, the report states, recalling that it was formed in 1926 “to afford an instrument through which American Jews and others who may be interested may give material aid on a strictly business basis to productive Palestinian enterprises and thereby further the economic development of the Holy Land and the resettlement there of an increasing number of Jews.”
Describing how the Palestine Economic Corporation is intimately related to many aspects of Palestine’s developing economy, the report says, “Through various subsidiaries and affiliated companies, it has a hand in such diverse fields as the Jewish co-operative movement, the financing and building of low-cost housing, the planned urban development of the Haifa area, the scientific exploitation of Palestine’s water resources, the development of the Dead Sea mineral resources, and the furnishing of electric power to the country. Directly or indirectly, these activities give our Corporation further participation in industry, banking, agriculture, transportation, social legislation and other fields.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
