Although the available land in Palestine is limited, the entire problem of the country can be solved by allowing the other side of the Jordan to be settled, declared Lord Strabolgi, formerly Commander Kenworthy, M.P., at a meeting called by the Jewish Youth Organizations to protest against the restrictions on Jewish immigration into Palestine.
He also said that “the one small country that seems to have escaped the general depression is Palestine. The reason is the energy, courage, ability and capital that have flowed into the land ever since the doors were opened to Jewish pioneers to recreate there their National Home. The Jewish immigrants have made it into a hive of economic and agricultural activity.
“But more labor is urgently needed. Yet the Administration has cut down the number of immigration certificates asked by seventy-five per cent. Countries like England put all obstacles in the way of immigrants; such a policy is incapable of defense.
“Yet, while we are restricting the immigration of suitable Jewish pioneers who require no help from the British taxpayer to get on with the work,” he said, “we are being asked to guarantee a £2,000,000 loan for Palestine. The Jews themselves do not want this money, and it would be far better spent in supplying water to the parched areas of Britain. Nearly £1,000,000 is being guaranteed for water and drainage schemes in Palestine, while the extent of the government’s drought policy in England was to call upon the British people to use less water.” This, he claimed, is the policy and economics of Bedlam.
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.
