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Hear Palestine Ordered Haifa to Buy Piping in England

July 31, 1931
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The Palestine government has ordered the Haifa municipality to buy its sewerage pipes in England, it was learned here today. Hitherto the city has been buying its piping in Belgium and Germany cheaper than the same pipes can be bought in England. The government is also understood to have prohibited the Haifa municipality from buying its pipes from the Tel Aviv pipe factory with which it had intended to make an agreement.

Article 18 of the Palestine Mandate stipulates that there is to be no discrimination against the nationals of any state member of the League of Nations (including companies incorporated under its laws) and that similarly there shall be no discrimination in Palestine against goods originating in any of the said states. By a special treaty the same provisions apply to nationals and goods of the United States.

On July 6, when Col. Howard Bury asked in the House of Commons with regard to the Dead Sea Works whether the contract for the machinery required had been given to British firms, Dr. Drummond Shiels, under-secretary of state for the Colonies, replied “Palestine is mandated territory, and it would not be in order for us to make a discrimination of that kind.”

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