Floating of Palestine Loan to Help Refugee Jews is Urged by I. B. Brodie

The Government of Palestine was called upon to let down immediately the existing immigration restrictions in order to meet the grave emergency now affecting Jews in Germany, in an address delivered Wednesday at the Fraternity Clubs by Israel B. Brodie before the American Economic Committee for Palestine. In addition, Mr. Brodie, who is President of the Committee, suggested the flotation of a large Jewish National Loan to be administered by a commission of recognized Jewish experts for the purpose of financing the development of large areas of uncultivated land in Palestine as well as the creation of new industries designed to serve not only the growing needs of Palestine but of the entire Near East as well.

“Economic conditions in Palestine,” Mr. Brodie said, “are entirely satisfactory at the present time. An actual shortage of labor exists. The Government has accumulated a very large surplus from revenues, more than £1,000,000. Under the circumstances, if a sound plan for the economic absorption of large numbers of Jewish immigrants is formulated, the Government would be entirely justified in temporarily letting down the present limitations on immigrants in order to afford a haven for the harassed Jews of Germany. The requirement of £1,000 for qualification as a so-called ‘capitalist’ settler should be also drastically reduced.

POSSIBILITIES OF DEVELOPMENT

“Sir Philip Cunliffe-Lister, the British Colonial Secretary,” Mr. Brodie continued, “stated Monday that the principal of the economic absorptive capacity of Palestine cannot be departed from in allowing immigrants to enter Palestine. We do not ask for such a departure. It is clear that, if the Jewish people throughout the Diaspora is willing to set up by way of a national loan a development fund of $15,000,000 a number of large undertakings could be initiated and carried forward.

“Among them could be the development of 100,000 dunams of rich land in the Jordan Valley; the reclamation of more than 150,000 dunams of Palestine’s richest land located in the Merom area; the acceleration of the program of Palestine Potash, Ltd., (the company operating the Dead Sea mineral salts concession) for the building of its railway through the Jordan Valley and for the development of operations at the southern end of the Dead Sea; the initiation of the Rutenberg irrigation program; the extension of housing credits for the homes of the enlarged immigration; and the establishment of a number of new industries for which the markets of Palestine and the Near East are now ready.

WOULD ABSORB IMMIGRATION

“The vigorous execution,” Mr. Brodie stated, “of these and other projects which would be determined upon after careful study would inevitably lead to the establishment of many other larger and smaller accessory industries and commercial establishments in Palestine to meet the rapidly expanding needs of Eretz Israel and the surrounding territory in the whole Near East. All of this work would tend to accelerate greatly the absorptive capacity of the country with respect to new immigration.

“For the formulation of a sound plan,” Mr. Brodie proposed, “a commission of outstanding experts should be immediately set up. It should study and evolve the methods for raising this Jewish National Loan as well as the program for its expenditure and its administration.

“I believe that the money raised for the purposes I have indicated would be safely invested. Some of these undertakings would yield a return on the capital in a relatively short time. The returns to be yielded by the colonization scheme would come more slowly, but the investment could be amortized over a longer period. The Jewish world now knows that investments in Palestine, carefully made and properly administered, have stood the test very well in recent years. I am convinced that the various projects would give employment to thousands of immigrants and enable many other thousands of families to settle on the soil and in the cities.

“The position in which Jewry finds itself today,” Mr. Brodie concluded, “should move us to think in Herzlian terms. Palestine can economically absorb as many Jews as the Jewish world determines. For opening the country to, and preparing the economic basis for, some hundreds of thousands of new immigrants into Palestine within a comparatively short time the Jews of the Diaspora must mobilize men and money. The situation will brook no delay. All this must be done in conformity with a soundly conceived and carefully administered plan.”