The invitation to Jews to migrate to Syria and Lebanon is a result of long deliberation between Jews and the French government, which is the mandatory power over Syria.
A memorandum on the situation in Syria, in connection with the rapid development in Palestine, was submitted recently to France by the French High Commissioner of Syria. It was pointed out in this memorandum that with the growth of Palestine Syria’s trade is dwindling. Not only have Syrian exports to neighboring Arab countries shrunk, but many Syrian traders are closing their branches in Damascus and Beirut and are proceeding with their capital to Palestine to do business there.
Jewish leaders have long been negotiating with the French authorities to permit German Jews to settle in different parts of Syria. Zionist leaders asked the Syrian government to permit Jews to settle near the Palestinian frontier, but a delegation of non-Zionist Jews from Germany recently visited Syria to negotiate with the Arab government there to permit settlement of German Jews near the Iraq border.
The German delegation was welcomed by Arab notables and taken for a three week’s tour of the country, for the purpose of investigating whether the land near the Iraq frontier would be suitable for Jewish colonization.
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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.
