Jewish Settlers in Palestine Sign Contracts to Repay Cost of Settlement by 1985: Ceremony at Kfar Ez

Representatives of all the settlements in the Valley of Jezreel were present at a ceremony held this afternoon at Kfar Ezekiel, when Dr. Weizmann on behalf of the Jewish Agency and Mr. Leib Jaffe, on behalf of the Keren Hayesod, signed the first contracts with the settlers on the Jewish National Fund land for repayments to be made by them to the Keren Hayesod, beginning in 1935 and to be completed in 50 years, by 1985.

The contracts, with regard to which long-drawn negotiations have been taking place, meet the recommendation made by the experts of the Joint Palestine Survey Commission in their report in 1928.

This day shows that Zionism is not only rich in splendid human material, but in actual wealth, for you have contracted to return to the Jewish people what the Jewish people have invested even if it takes half a century, Dr. Arthur Ruppin, the colonisation authority of the Zionist Organisation, said in an address to the settlers. Dr. Weizmann and others present took the opportunity of the occasion to pay a warm tribute to Dr. Ruppin for his 25 years of work for the ideal of Jewish labour colonisation in Palestine. Justice and heroism have marked all your steps, Dr. Weizmann declared in the course of his speech to the gathering. You have given the lie to all those experts who do not understand the soul of the Jewish labourer.

Dr. Weizmann, who was accompanied by Madame Warburg-Hahn, the daughter of Mr. Max Warburg of Hamburg, Colonel Kisch, and the Labour representatives Messrs. Harzfeld and Shkolnik, then inspected the settlements of Ain Harod, Tel Joseph, and Geva. He went on to Nahalal, where he was given a farewell reception, and thence proceeded to Haifa where he will spend the first day of Passover. He will sail on Friday on his return to London.