Israel Must Comtract Immigration Just when Jews May Leave “iron Curtain” Countries

Just at a time when the prospects for the migration of large numbers of Jews from East European countries to Israel are becoming brighter, the Jewish Agency and the Israel Government are compelled–because of financial reasons–to limit the number of immigrants entering Israel to 12,500 a month.

This was reported today at a meeting of the joint immigration coordinating boerd established by the Jewish Agency and the Israel Government. It is understood that the Rumanian Government has agreed to permit all Israel-bound immigrants who obtained exit wisas last month to leave on Israel ships.

Reports received here place the number of Jews who obtained visas in Rumania recently at relatively high levels. A transport of 1,080 Rumanian immigrants arrived in Haifa today aboard the Transylvania, the single Rumanian liner on which immigrants have heretofore been pormitted to travel to Israel.

Today’s meeting of the coordinating board decided to allocate 1,000,000 pounds ($2,800,000) for the purchase of tents in which to house an estimated 25,000 families in “tent colonies” near industrial and agricultural work centers in various parts of the country. It was also decided to set up a committee of three to work out a joint immigration and absorption budget. The members of the committee are Finance Minister Eliezer Kaplan; Agency treasurer Levi Eshkol; and Jewish National Fund world head Abreham Granot.

Four hundred thousand immigrants entered Israel since the new state was proclaimed on May 14, 1948, it was announced by Eliahu Dobkin, immigration chief of the Jewish Agency. of the total, some 215,000 immigrants came here from Europe while92,000 came from Asia and 60,000 from Africa, he reported.