The order suspending work on Sundays at the Athlit quarries, providing stone for the building of the Haifa Harbour, has been rescinded, the High Commissioner has informed the Jewish Agency, the J.T.A. here learns.
Referring to the decision that no work should be allowed on Sundays at the Athlit quarries, Dr. Selig Brodetsky, member of the Jewish Agency Executive, speaking at the Conference of the English Zionist Federation a few days ago, said that a Jewish National Home in which Jews have to fight for liberty to keep their own Sabbath and to work on the other six days of the week was not a Jewish National Home as he understood it. It is not a question of economics, he said. I deny the right to any Government to dictate to Jews in their Jewish National Home on which days of the week they have to work.
Dr. Doummond Shiels, the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, replying in the House of Commons about the middle of December to a question put by Mr. James Hall, the new Labour member for Whitechapel, said that he was not aware that any instructions prohibiting Sunday work had been issued in connection with the Haifa Harbour construction, Lord Passfield, the Colonial Secretary, he said, was in communication with the High Commissioner and as soon as a reply was received the matter would be fully considered.
Last week Dr. Shiels explained to a deputation consisting of Rabbi Dr. Pinchas Cohn, the President of the Agudath Israel World Organisation, and Mr. H. A. Goodman, the Secretary of its Political Executive, that he sympathised with the religious scruples put before him by the delegation with regard to the decision enforcing Sunday closing of the Athlit quarries. The decision, he said, had been arrived at after much consideration. It was not intended as a precedent, and had been decided purely for economic reasons, as the expense was greatly increased and the supervisory staff had been working for seven days a week, which had militated against their health and efficiency. The matter would be kept under observation, he added.
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