New Roads to Link Haifa with Cairo and Baghdad

The impending completion of two major roads connecting Haifa with Cairo on the one hand and with Baghdad on the other is expected to add considerably to the importance of Haifa as a vital link in the Middle East.

Writing in Palestine and the Middle East, M. Tishler, general secretary of the Pro-Haifa Economic Committee, explains that the Baghdad road will bring the trade of the Middle East to Haifa in preference to other Mediterranean ports as freight costs will be halved and transport possible all the year round.

In the same issue an article by Dr. Wydra of the Jewish Agency Maritime Department suggests new developments for Haifa port. Dr. Wydra proposes the introduction of allied industries such as shipyards, boat building, etc; both local and foreign vessels would be gland of dry-dock facilities at Haifa while waiting for cargo. Haifa should also be developed as a fishing port, the writer declares. Accommodation, he says, should be provided for anchorage, fueling station, net stores, net repair shelters and storage for the catch. Heavy grain imports reaching Haifa make the construction of a silo an urgent need. In addition Haifa could well be developed as the Middle East storehouse for coffee, sugar, tea, wheat, flour ,etc, by provision of free zone facilities.

Realization of these and similar schemes would give a fresh impetus to the city’s industrial evolution, Palestine economic experts claim. This industrial development has been greatly advanced in the past by the construction of Haifa port, the planning of the Haifa Bay industrial zone, the opening up of abundant water resources and the construction of a large power station to cater to the needs of the city’s growing industry. In 1937 already there were not less than 261 factories in Haifa with and aggregate capital of nearly 2,000,000 pounds and accounting for 25 per cent of the total Jewish industry in the country.