A difficult and responsible taks is facing the committee appointed by the Palestine government to consider ways and means of coordinating railroad and road transport services in this country and of making suitable recommendations for their economic rationalization, a member of the committee declared in an exclusive interview with the writer.
“The problem of transportation economics in Palestine is no less acute than in other countries, primarily America, England and India,” he said, “for there are the same principles involved, although the whole matter is necessarily on a smaller scale.
“The development of the trade and industry of Palestine is bound up with the growth of its transport services, whether by rail or by road, which must keep pace with the general rate of progress. There are many interlocking tactors, chief among which are the questions whether the whole transport system is or direct economic benefit to trade and industry, whose expansion is handicapped in the contrary case, and of indirect economic benefit to the public at large,” he declared.
It would be a less difficult task to consider the position of the Palestine Railways, as the committee would be given the necessary statistics and data required, he pointed out. But the whole situation is rendered more complicated where the road transport services are concerned. These are from an organization point of view, in a chaotic condition. No figures have been kept in a manner that would render them easily accessible to investigators. Some of the co-operatives and companies operating in this industry carried on cut-throat competition with each other; individual drivers of small automobiles and large omnibuses and freight trucks squabbled among themselves, and quoted different fares and freight charges and there was no central control over traffic.
DIFFERENT LIVING STANDARDS
Moreover, the different standards of living between Jewish and Arab public drivers have contributed towards disharmony in their sphere of transport activity. Arab interurban lines carrying passengers and goods quote lower charges than the Jews, who have a higher level to maintain. This economic chaos has been most harmful to the general interests of the country.
Added to all of this competition in the motor transportation field, there is the competition of the Palestine railways. At present the rail lines are being run at a loss owing to the large capital outlay involved, but profitable operation is possible. Some method of economic co-ordination must be worked out to protect the interests of both the railroads and the inter-city road services, while at ## same time contributing ## the rational progress of trade, industry, agriculture and the general welfare of the land.
Criticism has been levelled at the Palestine administration in the past, the member of the committee commented, on the ground that they have acted inimically towards the road transportation lines. But this he said, does not square up with the fact that the British authorities have laid down in Palestine a network of the finest asphalt roads in the Near East, making communications far more easy than they had been in pre-war days or, for that matter, than they are in neighboring territories. It is a British habit, he said, in colonization first to put up a Union Jack and then to put down good roads.
Naturally the deliberations of the committee of which William Joseph Johnson is chairman, will take some time before a report can be submitted, he declared. But the committee, he asserted is a fair and impartial body, and there is no doubt but that its findings will, if accepted by the government, form a valuable contribution to the development of Palestine.
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