Trade circles reported today that the progress of the Allied forces in Syria was bringing swift renewal of normal trade relations between Palestine and Syria, which had been interrupted last March.
Several Palestine merchants, it was revealed, have gone to the parts of Syria occupied by the Allied forces to arrange exchange of goods and foodstuffs, especially vegetables. At the same time a group of Syro-Lebanese merchants have arrived in Haifa for the same purpose.
A call for increased enlistment was voiced today by Moshe Shertok, head of the Jewish Agency’s political department, at a press conference at Tel Aviv. He stated that 8,800 Palestine Jews were now serving with the British forces, including 70 officers, three of them captains. He revealed also that 1,100 Jewish soldiers had been taken prisoner in the Greek campaign and were interned under Italian supervision.
Final agreement among Jewish parties concerning reconstruction of the community representation has not yet been signed because not all the rightist groups have joined as yet, Shertok revealed, expressing hope that the crisis would soon be over and the agreement signed.
Indicative of the growing Arab-Jewish amity, Mayor Israel Rokach of Tel Aviv today attended funeral services for Mayor Abdul Rauf il-Bitar of Jaffa, who died in Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem after a long illness.
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.
