A Survey of Palestine’s Progress

The following is the first of two articles by a correspondent of the Manchester Guardian appraising Jewish achievement in Palestine. ### second article will appear here tomorrow.

The government figures of growing revenue, abounding surplus, increase of currency, and so on merely reflect the extraordinary increase of private enterprise and production in Palestine. That material development has been a constant feature of the country since the Mandate was given in 1920. What has marked the last two years is the tempo of the development. The primary cause, without doubt, is the multiplication of the immigration. In 1933 the figures of the immigrants rose to over 40,000, a greater number than had been recorded before; and the figures for 1934 will be still higher. The last labor immigration schedule which the government recently issued for the period October, 1934, to March, 1935, provided for the issue to the Jewish Agency of 7,500 certificates; and in addition the government is holding in reserve 2,200 certificates to meet cases of persons either entering as tourists and staying permanently or entering illicitly.

ENTRY DOUBLED FIGURES

These figures mean an immigration of nearly double as many persons, because of the wives and children who accompany the holders of certificates. There must also be added to it the immigration of persons with capital, of students, of children to be maintained by responsible organizations, and of relations of existing settlers. The total number of persons, then, who may be expected to enter Palestine during the six months’ period must be some 25,000.

At least a quarter of the immigrants come from Germany, and of these German immigrants about one-third bring capital not less than $5,000 and in a great many cases several thousand dollars. Others bring special industrial and professional talents. Palestine has therefore been receiving in these last two years an extraordinary fund both of material and intellectual wealth, and that wealth is finding its outlet in a vast number of agricultural, industrial, and commercial enterprises.

HEAVY INVESTMENTS

Besides the wealth which is brought by the immigrants, Palestine receives yearly large sums for offers the attractions of British investment from the Jews of many countries. It has been said that it security without the menace of British income tax. Anyhow, Jews in the United States, South Africa, and other lands showing a growing inclination to place part of their capital in enterprises in the country. The amount of money on deposit at the banks in Palestine is difficult to estimate accurately. It is certainly not less than $50,000,000; it may be far more. The presence of so much money may not be an unmixed benefit, but at present, anyhow, there is no difficulty in financing new industries.

The least healthy aspect of this capitalistic development is the ##gy of speculation in land, both urban and rural, which is infecting part of the Jewish population. The prices of land in the suburbs of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Haifa soar fantastically. The prices of land fit—or said to be fit—for fruit plantations in the Plain of Sharon soar equally fantastically. The Arabs, it is said, declare that the notes must be forged and the coin must be counterfeit. They cannot believe that persons would pay the prices in good money which are being given for the scraps of land.

AGRICULTURAL PROGRESS

While the fever of speculation does not bring any genuine development, the enterprises of the country, both agricultural and industrial, have manifested in these two years a genuine and remarkable expansion. In agriculture the principal growth is of plantations. The total area now planted with citrus fruit exceeds 50,000 acres; and the output for export rises by at least 1,000,000 cases a year. The development of the dairy industry and chicken-farming is, however, hardly less striking, although the increased supply lags behind the increasing demand. While there has been a drift of Jewish labor from the plantation settlements on the coast to the towns, there has been a no less notable increase of the Jewish agricultural population in the settlements of small-holders and co-operative groups. In the Plain of Esdraelon the population has nearly doubled within the last three years.

INDUSTRY THRIVES

As regards industry, to which the German immigrants particularly turn, the few large-scale enterprises which existed before have thrived in the general prosperity. The largest private concern was the Nesher factory for the manufacture of cement. This now employs 1,000 persons, working day, and night in three shifts, and even so cannot meet the demand for building material. The Palestine Electric Corporation, which supplies electricity for the whole country, save for the region of Jerusalem and Bethlehem, has also to extend its plant. The 15,000 horse power generated from the falls of Jordan and the Yarmuk is insufficient; and the company is to extend its fuel stations at Haifa and Jaffa so as to meet the demands of the scores of industrial enterprises that are springing up.

The other large enterprise, the Palestine Potash Company, which is extracting the mineral wealth from the Dead Sea, particularly potash and bromine, is well ahead in its development of the schedule of productior prescribed in its concession from the government. It is preparing now for the laying out of pans and the production of salts at the southern as well as the northern end of the Dead Sea. Presumably it will provide later for export of its products from Akaba, and so be able to carry them to the Far East without paying the Suez Canal dues.

It is not, however, the few large concerns so much as the many small manufacturers and industrial enterprises, that give the most impressive indication of Palestine’s development as an industrial country. They are to be numbered now by hundreds in Tel Aviv, in Haifa, and in Jerusalem, and in a number of the villages in the neighborhood of the towns. They make all manner of things, foodstuffs, textiles, leather goods, fancy goods of every kind, metal work, perfumes, and false teeth. German enterprises and method are already dominant.

The Haifa Bay area, which has been reclaimed from the Haifa marshes, is destined to be the big industrial centre. In it there have already sprung up a large iron foundry which is planning to produce all the pipes required by the country, a glass factory, a brick factory, and a factory for essential oils. A recent census showed that of the new industries established in the country since the beginning of 1934 sixty per cent were set up by Germans. The capital invested was nearly $1,000,000. Within that same Haifa Bay area, a new township for workers which has already 1,000 houses, each with its garden, has sprung up in the last year, and it is planned in the