At a joint meeting of the Vaad Leumi, Jewish National Council of Palestine, and the Zionist Executive yesterday it was decided to appropriate $25,000 as a general relief fund and for long term loans to the small Jewish merchants who are affected directly or indirectly by the disorders or the boycotts. The plan calls for making arrangements with a number of local banks to deposit $25,000 as a sinking fund guarantee against which the banks will make available a total of about $100,000 in loans. Negotiations in this matter are already under way with the banks and a definite decision is expected within ten days.
That the suffering from the boycott is becoming serious was apparent at the offices of the Vaad Ha’Ezra, the emergency relief committee where wild scenes of disorder resulted when a crowd of people, mostly Georgians, seeking relief demanded quicker service. The disturbances assumed a more serious proportion than others in the past when the crowd pushed up the statirs, banged on the doors, broke windows. Eventually the police had to be called to maintain order.
According to members of the crowd they are dissatisfied because the re (Continued on Page 12)
lief funds were not distributed quickly enough. A number of them complained that although they were suffering from the boycott and wanted small loans to tide them over the difficult period they had thus far been unable to obtain either the loans or consideration of their requests.
Charles Passman, directing the relief work of the Vaad Leumi, declared that the work was going on as rapidly as possible. A committee is sitting four hours each night passing the cases, he said. It is impossible to go any faster without the risk of giving relief to undeserving people, he declared.
Passman stated that the disorder of yesterday as well as in the past was caused by a number of men anxious to obtain money so as to avoid working. He said that several of these had been told to go to the employment office but they had never reported for jobs. The distribution of the relief funds, he asserted, had created a hope of getting money in these men and as a result a number of innocent and deserving peowaiting in line had not been able to enter the committee’s offices.
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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.
