100,000 Jews on Land As Result of Ica. Efforts

The work of settling Jews on the land is progressing everywhere, stated Sir Leonard L. Cohen, President of the Jewish Colonization Association (Ica), in presenting his annual report to the general meeting of the association held here last week.

Speaking of Palestine, Sir Leonard stated that the Ica colonies there were affected only very slightly by the disturbances of last year and that the colonists did not suffer in person. Continuing he said:

“The success attending our work in the overseas countries has enabled us to proceed with our search for new areas for our colonization activity. We have been impelled to this by the results of the war and the devastation of the Jewish settlements of Central and Eastern Europe. In this way we have come to engage in colonization on the spot, that is to say, to consolidate the existing populations where they are living. That is the reason for our work in Poland, Russia and Roumania.

“There is in Poland a very thickly populated Jewish agricultural area of hard-working people, especially in the Eastern zones and in Galicia. We brought help to 35 colonies, which were severely tried by the economic crisis and the destruction of the harvests. In Roumania we have also given assistance to large numbers of Jewish colonists. In Russia by December 31st last, 2,362 families had already taken firm root in the Ica colonies.

“In other countries outside Europe we have placed at least 20,000 families of Jews on the land. At this very moment, as a result of the efforts of the Ica, there is a Jewish peasant population in existence of at least 100,000 persons, without counting those who have come on the land without our direct aid and who have equally received facilities from us in the practice of agriculture. I ask you, is it possible to say after this that Jews do not know how to become agriculturists?”