The plan of the Comzet describes the region slated for this colonization work as marked by the following frontiers; the Mikhaelovo-Semenovsk District and the Ekaterina-Mikolsk District within the present administrative boundaries and part of the Khingan-Acharinsk District bordering on the west up to the River Khingan, with the strip to the north of the railway line of the station of Ablutchie as far as the River Urmi.
The “Emes,” Communist daily, in writing of the plan stated: “The cost of settlement would be about 2,000 roubles per family. Thirty-five thousand families could be settled almost immediately and the region has room for a population of a million Jews, if the land is allocated for Jewish settlement before other settlers arrive. The adjoining region of Blagovyeschchensk was rapidly occupied.
“The climate of the region is good and healthy. The summer is warm and moist and the winter frosty and sunny. There are no violent winds and no heavy snowfalls. There are no local diseases, no malaria. The water is good and plentiful and there is much pastureland, so that there are good possibilities of cattle breeding. Communication is good, Khaborovsk, the administrative center being only a few hours away by railway and the great port of Vladivostock only 940 kilometers distant.
“The Far East,” the paper concludes, “has a tremendous future. It is our Canada or America. And the Jewish region in the Far East has opportunities of becoming the Jewish land of the future.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
