Measures taken by the British Government to establish the Jewish National Home in Palestine and their effects are for the first time featured as the first chapter of the annual report of the Palestine Government to the Mandates Commission of the League of Nations which is to be made public tomorrow, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency learns today.
The change in the usual procedure is due to an endeavor on the part of the Palestine government to arrange its replies in the same order that the Mandates Commission of the League of Nations asked its questions.
Reference to British endeavors to establish the Jewish National Home is the first of twenty-two questions asked by the Mandates Commission to which the report of the Palestine Government is a reply.
The report includes two maps showing the cadastral and land survey and also a diagram of the progress of the Haifa Harbor construction.
The report reveals the enormous increase in Palestine development despite the fall in such invisible exports as Zionist contributions which resulted in the diminution of the purchasing power of the population and accordingly the fall of the customs receipts.
Nevertheless, says the report, the Palestine government’s income profit over expenditures this year amounts to £585,139.
The Jewish community, the report says further, has achieved in the face of the depression a high degree of independence from external contributions.
Among the measures inaugurated by the British government to carry out its pledge to facilitate the establishment of the Jewish National Homeland in Palestine, the report lists the admission of 4,075 Jewish immigrants during the year
in addition to the facilitation of the registration of 8,000 Jews who entered Palestine illegally.
The latest census figures show that the Jewish population has increased almost 170 percent during eleven years, according to the report, and the comment is made that this in itself indicates the striking progress in the establishment of the Jewish National Homeland.
Certain import duties and protective tariffs have been introduced by the government for the advantage of Jewish industry, the report continues.
The government assisted the Levant Fair by facilitating customs and immigration formalities and railway fares.
The government is still discussing with the Jewish Agency an applicable formula to determine the Jewish share in employment in public works, taking into account the contributions of the Jews to the revenue of the country. Thus far the number of Jewish workers employed in the Haifa Harbor construction is now 340 as compared with 183 in 1930, states the report.
The Jerusalem municipality, it states further, now employs in its public works 63 Jews of a total of 194 workers
There is now a complete network of roads and telephones connecting the Jewish colonies with the principal centres for the purposes of defense, it states.
Examples of co-operation with the Jewish Agency by the Government, concerning which the question was raised by the Mandates Commission, are cited in the report.
The Jewish Agency, it asserts, has advised the Palestine government on various matters including immigration, the census, industrial matters, customs, Jewish education subsidies. The Jewish Agency, it says, has most hopefully co-operated in the interests of solving the problem of the Arabs on Wadi Hawareth land.
The Wadi Hawareth land is a purchase of the Jewish National Fund, which squatters have persistently sought to retain by trespassing. The Jewish National Fund, upon the urgent request of the government, agreed to lease part of this land to the Arabs until 1933.
The report states that the financial crisis abroad has adversely affected Zionist collections. On the other hand it has had the effect of inducing small capitalists to look toward Palestine for their investments.
It notes that the investments in orange plantations have shown a drop and also that there are not as many new merchants and shop-keepers.
A prominent feature of events of the present year was the fall in the sale of agricultural land. Jewish interests this year acquired less land than in many of the eleven years that have elapsed.
Jewish purchases of land totalled 18,785 dunams of which the Jewish National Fund purchased 9,978 dunams, the report disclosed.
While Jewish immigration this year somewhat exceeds that of last year, Jewish emigration from Palestine was the lowest since the war, only 666 Jewish emigrants having departed as compared with 1,679 last year. On the other hand large numbers of Palestinians, particularly Arabs who migrated to America, returned to Palestine due to the industrial depression.
Emigration to the United States has dropped considerably. This is true of the Arabs as well, says the report. Emigration to the United States has dropped to 272 as compared with 724 in 1929, while emigration to Latin America has dropped to 205 as compared with 1,290 last year.
The Jewish birth rate has somewhat declined, the report reveals, remaining as before the lowest birth rate as compared with the Christian and Arab birth rates. The Jewish death rate is however also the lowest. Thus the natural increase among the Jews amounts to 22.94 per thousand, while the Moslem increase is 30.66 per thousand.
The Jewish birth rate for the year just passed was 32.66 per thousand and as compared with the Moslem rate of 60.29. While the Jewish death rate was 29.63 per thousand.
Jewish unemployment for the year averaged eight to nine percent of the Jewish working population. While the report does not disclose the figures of Arab unemployment, it states that Arab unemployment was highest during the summer.
The balance in the reduction of subsidies was maintained in the proportion of one to five between the Jews and the Arabs.
The number of Jewish officers on the police force is twenty three of a total of 150. Jewish policemen number 253 of a total of 2,615.
There are only two Jewish officers on the Transjordan frontier force and 33 privates of a total of 1,039.
The report also presents the instructions given to Lewis French, Palestine Land Commissioner, by Lord Passfield, in his capacity as Secretary of State for the Colonies, but does not refer to the conclusions by Mr. French in his survey of land possibilities in Palestine.
The regulations pertaining to worship at the Wailing Wall are contained in an appendix to the report. There is also a brief report on Transjordania which occupies about one tenth of the total report.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
