The Comzet, governmental department for settling Jews on the land and in agriculture, is severely scored for its deficiencies of work in Bira Bidjan, where an autonomous Jewish region is scheduled at the end of 1933, in the report submitted by the government expert on the Commission sent to investigate conditions in Bira Bidjan and to suggest methods of improvement.
The Comzet has not the slightest notion of what Bira Bidjan colonization actually means, the report declares. Up to the present the work of the Comzet was nothing more than mere child’s play.
Only mechanical amelioration on a large scale can make Bira Bidjan produce results, the government expert declares.
According to the government’s second five year plan, an expenditure of 60,000,000 roubles is required to prepare 150,000 hectares of land in Bira Bidjan for colonization. Of this sum the expenditure of 7,500,000 roubles will be required in 1933 for preparing 17,000 hectares of land.
Thus far, however, the government has alloted only the sum of 3,500,000 roubles for this purpose.
The press points out that the enterprise is beyond the means of the Ozet, Jewish colonization society, and asserts that the co-operation of scientific institutions and leaders is essential if expectations are to be justified.
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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.
