This correspondent has just returned from Sosua, 26,000-acre tract donated by General-issimo Rafael L. Trujillo, on which the first organized refugee colonization in the New World is to be started soon, accompanying Arthur M. Lamport, New York barker, who is visiting here.
Sosua is situated in the north of the island, about 180 miles from the capital. On good roads we reached our destination, in a car placed at Lamport’s disposal by Generalissimo Trujillo, in five hours. We passed fruitful landscapes full of tropical fruit, clean cities and sugar estates. A few miles before Puerto Plata we left the main road and took a short cut to Sosua.
Sosua lies on a bay and consists of a group of 17 houses built of wood and concrete. These houses are all in good condition and give a pleasant aspect. Some other houses are near this place; there are altogether about 40 on the tract. The air was refreshing and we enjoyed a beautiful view of the bay and the sea. A remark was made that we thought that we were in an American summer resort.
A small power-station furnishes the houses with electric light, and a pump station secures the water supply from the Sosua river, which enters the sea near the estate. There is a school where a young Dominican lady gives lessons to children between six and 14 years of age. A post office is situated in the center of the settlement, and a military station guards the entrance to the tract.
Frederick Perlstein, director of Sosua, welcomed us and took us out in his car to show us the estate. The tract consists of about 40 square miles of land of great diversification. There are hills and valleys, pasture lands, virgin soils, forests of various fruits and wild nuts.
A great deal has already been accomplished in road building. Excellent material for road building, such as is easily crushable from corroded rock formations, is accessible everywhere. The whole tract skirts the Atlantic Ocean, which is to the north, and is bathed by refreshing winds.
Traversing at right angles across the estate for about ten miles, you pass pasture lands; lands which are amenable to the cultivation of many products from sugar, bananas, and coffee to vegetable garden products, tomatoes, beans, peas, etc.
There are already 70 cows at the settlement to ensure that dairy products will be available to the first settlers. There are impounded fields for experimentation with various seeds, there are places primeval on the foot hills with sweet almond trees, guayaba fruit trees, etc.
The Sosua Settlement is ready for the accommodation of about 200 settlers and shows unmistakable evidence that it will rapidly be made available for many more.
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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.
