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Role of Palestine’s Cooperative Movement Discussed at Washington Conference

January 21, 1944
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The role which the Jewish cooperative movement has assumed in the development of Palestine was discussed here today at the international reconstruction conference of the Cooperative League of the United States. representatives of nineteen countries are attending the sessions.

Dr. James P. Warbasse, president emeritus of the Cooperative League, speaking of the achievements of Jewish cooperatives in Palestine, emphasized that “the Jews are building up a national economy in Palestine on a cooperative basis and the Arabs are beginning to emulate the Jewish example.”

Israel Mereminsky, speaking for the General Cooperative Association of the Histadruth, reviewed the activities of the Palestine labor cooperatives. He said that the Jews in Palestine, working in a country still subject to feudalism, are transforming the desert into fertile land through the cooperative idea. The cooperative, he added, is bringing a higher standard of living. Palestine, he said, may be regarded as the first instance where the cooperative idea has been successfully applied to colonization.

Maurice Columbian, director of the cooperative section of the International labor Office, predicted there will be 110,000 cooperative distribution outlets available in Europe for handling relief. At the conference are Government and cooperative representatives of China, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, France, England, Greece, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland, Yugoslavia, Brazil, Canada, Palestine, the Philippines and New Zealand.

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