Palestine May Legalize Entry of All Jews Who Arrived Irregularly Since Last Census

All Jews who entered Palestine in an irregular manner since the last census of population was taken will have their entry legalized by permitting them all to register as immigrants, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency learned today. This is to be part of a general amnesty in connection with the approaching census.

The presence in Palestine of a large number of Jews, variously estimated at between ten and twenty thousand, who entered or remained in the country irregularly, forms one of the difficult problems for which a solution must be found before the forthcoming census. While the Immigration Department considers the figure to approximate perhaps as high as 20,000, mostly Jews, Jewish authorities are inclined to accept less than half of this figure for Jewish “delinquents.”

The majority of those in this category came on tourist visas and remained beyond the three months period. Of these, many have taken steps to qualify as immigrants. In recent years this element formed a substantial part of the Jewish immigrants into the country, the monthly immigration figures showing a considerable number of Jews who have received permission to remain permanently.

During 1930, 1,306 persons who entered Palestine irregularly eventually received permission to remain as immigrants. To this number the Immigration Department added another 3,000 who entered Palestine as travelers on tourist visas or by evading the passport controls.

Both Sir John Hope Simpson’s report and the subsequent White Paper referred to the presence of a large number of immigrants who have evaded the law, but did not specify what proportion of the six or seven thousand were Jews, and what proportion were Syrians, Egyptians and Arabs who managed to evade frontier control.