Jewish Agency Finances: Assets Greater Than Obligations

The total obligations of the Jewish Agency amount to £P. 700,000 against assets of over £P. 800,000, even after deducting £P. 500,000 for depreciation in the value of investments, Dr. Werner Senator, the Treasurer of the Jewish Agency Executive, declared at a press meeting held at the offices of the Jewish Agency here.

The £P. 700,000 which were not all debts, he continued, included a number of budgetary obligations and several investments such as some £P. 184,000 advanced in winding up the affairs of the American Zion Commonwealth, to which an additional sum of about £P. 114,000 must be added. The Palestine Foundation Fund, the financial arm of the Jewish Agency, received land as security against this investment, the value of which will ultimately be recovered from the Jewish National Fund, to which the land passed.

The Executive of the Jewish Agency, he said, had never exceeded the limit of its ordinary credits and its actual obligations at the present time do not exceed £P. 150,000, which amount includes overdue salaries of teachers and officials, and a further sum of £P. 55,000 due to various banking institutions.

Recent developments (such as the fall in the pound and the economic depression in Central and Eastern Europe, and the heavy decline in income from the United States), he explained, have necessitated a curtailment of even the comparatively small sums budgetted at the last Zionist Congress in Basle.

It is cold comfort to us, Dr. Senator concluded, but great Governments, too, are faced with serious problems in balancing their budgets. I am confident, however, that the Eionist Organisation and the Jewish people know how to react to the situation and will enable us to surmount this trying period, both by strengthening the Jewish Agency and enlisting new forces for the upbuilding of the land.