Palestine Prospects Outlined to 1,425 by U.S. Group in 1934

A total of 1,425 capitalist immigrants and investors as well as tourists investigating investment possibilities in Palestine were assisted by the American Economic Committee for Palestine in 1934, it is announced in the annual report of the Committee.

German middle class inquirers outnumbered all the others, the report discloses. The aggregate capital of 1,100 inquirers amounted to more than $20,000,000. The rest of the inquirers refused to disclose the amount of their capital to officials of the committee.

LESS INTEREST IN MANUFACTURING

Contrary to the popular view, middle class immigrants are seeking productive undertakings, the Economic Committee learned from its contact with inquirers. A relative decrease in the tendency towards manufacturing is also shown in the report.

During the year the American Economic Committee Investigators continued their work of enlarging and revising the Central Bureau’s files of the economic phases of the more important branches of Palestine industry, agriculture and commerce. The files are now the most complete of their kind extant in relation to the Palestine development and are constantly being expanded and brought up to date in the interest of prospective middle-class settlers and investors. The files are available to public and private institutions and are constantly being used by them. The work of gathering and preparing economic data and the work of registering and assisting prospective entrepreneurs and of eliminating unjustified undertakings constitute preliminary steps taken by the American Economic Committee toward planned economic endeavor.

OFFICIAL SOURCES

Under an agreement executed in August, 1934, with the Palestina-Amt in Berlin, the American Economic Committee became the official source of economic information for German middle-class immigrants. Prior to the formal agreement, the American Economic Committee had been furnishing the Palestina-Amt with all the available data required for fulfilling the need of prospective middle-class immigrants from Germany for specific information about industry, agriculture and service performed by the American Economic Committee for the Palestina-Amt and gave that group one of the most complete files of specific Palestine economic data outside of Palestine.

In addition to its work with personal inquiries by or in behalf of capitalist immigrants, the American Economic Committee furnished specialized information to 273 miscellaneous economic inquirers and sent detailed replies, frequently elaborate reports to 915 mail inquiries received from prospective capitalist immigrants and investors from all parts of the world.

VISITORS INCREASE

During 1934 the American Economic Committee experienced a marked increase in the number of visits paid to its Central Bureau by the individual inquirers who sought additional information and continuous guidance. Hundreds of inquirers returned to the Central Bureau to request more data on the subjects already investigated or data on new subjects or to report on the progress of their plans or to confer with American Economic Committee officials about their problems or about new developments.

The year also saw the settlement of many inquirers who had come to Palestine during 1932 and 1933 on investigation trips. These persons had returned with their families and their goods and had merged themselves with many such inquirers who are now abroad and who expect to return for settlement in 1935.

The American Economic Committee paid special attention to export opportunities. Every opportunity to encourage exports was utilized. The inquiries which it received from many parts of the world were assiduously answered and referred to the proper firms.