I Doubted Advisability of Re-establishing Settlement in These Isolated Areas in Midst of Arab Surrou

I seriously doubted the advisability of re-establishing a settlement in these isolated areas in the midst of Arab surroundings until I saw the young, robust and gallant men who are settling here and became convinced that the Jewish authorities have acted wisely, Sir John Chancellor, the High Commissioner for Palestine, said this afternoon, in replying to the greeting addressed to him by Dr. Maurice B. Hexter, member of the Jewish Agency Executive, who conducted the High Commissioner and his party over the site of the Jewish colony of Beer Tuviah, which was razed during the disturbances of August 1929, and is now nearing the end of its restoration, a kilometre and a half east of the site of the old Beer Tuviah, contrasting with the ruins the new concrete houses, the stables and the water installation of the new colony, the result of twelve months’ feverish work, financed by the Palestine Emergency Fund, which has allocated a sum of £35,000 for the rebuilding activity.

I am glad to hear that you are establishing the colony on a sound economic basis, the High Commissioner went on, and I shall do my best to give effect to your requests for road and telephone facilities.

The new settlers half of them picked ex-legionaries, number 110 adults with 130 children. The water installation makes it possible for the colony to engage in citrus cultivation.

The guests present included Major Campbell, the District Commissioner for the South of Palestine, Dr. Schlesinger, who is Acting Chancellor of the Hebrew University during the absence abroad of Dr. J. L. Magnes, Mr. A. J. Spender, the famous London journalist of the “New Chronicle”, and Dr. Arthur Ruppin, member of the Jewish Agency Executive.