Palestine Government So Anxious to Have Pipe Line Carried over Palestine Territory That They Denied

The convention with the Iraq Petroleum Company signed by the Governments of Palestine and Transjordan, shows how anxious the British authorities in Palestine are to be as accommodating as possible in order to induce the Company to carry the pipe line over Palestine territory and have it terminate in the Haifa Bay area, it is pointed out here. No facility has been withheld and no privilege denied the Company in an effort to rival the conditions offered by the French authorities in order to induce the Company to bring the pipe line to Syria.

Palestine Labour is perturbed over the fact that the provision with regard to the employment of Palestine labour is not qualified by any demand for the protection of the labourer, such as a fair wage clause or insurance. If this were a convention which required the ratification of the British Parliament, it is argued, the rights of the worker would not have been so disregarded. But as this agreement was officially negotiated as a simple “administrative measure”, despite its far-reaching consequences, the Colonial Office, it is complained, has seen fit to do as it pleased, asking no security for the worker and giving the Company every possible advantage over the employee.

The Hebrew Labour daily “Davar” deplores that the relations between the Jewish and Arab workers are for the present such as to exclude the possibility of their uniting in common battle against this disregard of the rights of the workers. But while the Arab leaders persist in their futile war on Zionism, it concludes, the Jewish Agency and the Jewish Labour Federation must take the necessary steps to safeguard the workers rights in this enormous under-taking, recognising that in this way they will be serving the interests of all the workers of the country.