Shortage of Workers is Felt in Palestine, Says Berl Locker

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Berl Locker, member of the World Zionist Executive, told a gathering of 500 Zionists in Temple Mishkan Tefila, Roxbury, last night that the most outstanding feature of Palestine Jewish life today is the shortage of workers which is strongly felt in every branch of economic activity.

“Palestine had in the last year an immigration of more than 40,000 Jews, among them about 11,000 workers, who together with their families, number about 20,000. Notwithstanding this relatively large workers’ immigration, there is felt a great shortage of working men and women in the building trade, in agriculture and in all branches of the industries which were established through the immigration of Jewish capital in recent years into Palestine,” he stated.

PALESTINE ONLY LAND

“Palestine has become the only land for a Jewish mass immigration, and there is no doubt that Palestine in its present situation of economic prosperity, which the Jews have built up, would be able to absorb a much larger immigration than the 40,000 I have mentioned,” he continued.

Mr. Locker pointed out that one of the important tasks of the executive of the Jewish Agency is to prove to the mandatory government that this measure of immigration facilities is not enough, neither according to the needs of the Jewish people in the world nor to the real possibilities in Palestine.

“The present government,” he said, “must conform to allow a larger Jewish immigration and especially a larger Jewish labor immigration, which should safeguard the development of Jewish agriculture and industry in Palestine.”

DISCLAIMS ARAB HOSTILITY

Mr. Locker declared that the Arab-Jewish relationship in Palestine has improved in recent years, although Arab political leaders will not admit this. “We have to make a difference between the declarations of political dogmatists and the real tendencies of daily life,” he stated. “Arab beliefs are quite definite that the Jewish immigration has created a situation of prosperity for the whole population of the country, which makes Palestine an exception among all countries in the world and especially among the countries of the Near East.”

Philip Potash presided and Elihu D. Stone of the Zionist Organization of America brought greetings from the national body.

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