News Brief

this end the Jewish Agency asks that the government should work out, in consultation with the Agency, a comprehensive plan of close settlement by Jews, should assist the Agency in its work of close settlement and should act through the Agency wherever practicable.

As regards the important question of Jewish-Arab relations, the memorandum of the Jewish Agency reiterates the affirmation of the Twelfth Zionist Congress held at Carlsbad in August. 1921, that the Jewish people are determined “to live with the Arab people (in Palestine) on terms of harmony and mutual respect, and together with them to make the common home into a flourishing community, the upbuilding of which may assure to each of its peoples an undisturbed national development.”

The memorandum also declares that the considered policy of the Jewish Agency is to aim at an understanding between the Jews and the Arabs and announces the willingness of the Agency to consider suitable proposals that will enable the Jews and Arabs to arrive at an amicable understanding, but such understanding “can only be based upon each side equally recognizing the civil and national rights of the other.

“No agreement endangering the policy of the Jewish National Home can be contemplated,” the memorandum states, while the following three fundamentals must be safeguarded:

(a) “The recognition of the historical connection with Palestine of Jews all over the world, as contained in the Balfour Declaration and the Mandate, must be maintained.

(b) “Jewish immigration and colonization must be free and not subject to any restriction on political grounds, being limited only by the desire and ability of the Jewish people to raise financial means for this purpose, and by the development of Palestine and its power of absorption of new immigrants. No limitation upon the ultimate percentage of Jews in the country can be accepted.

(c) “The Jews in Palestine are to be considered as constituting a united community upon a national basis, on an equal footing with the Arab community of the country, not only as regards language, education and culture, but also as constituting a partner in the political life of the country. Jews in Palestine will never desire to dominate the non-Jewish inhabitants of the country, and will always refuse to be dominated by them.”

DISCUSSES CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGES

On the question of self-governing institutions the Jewish Agency welcomes their possibility and “looks foward with hope to the future, when circumstances in the country will have developed so as to make such constitutional changes possible and desirable.” The demand for self government, however, the memorandum of the Jewish Agency says, is “not based upon a desire to associate the masses of the country with the government” but on the contrary is “circumstanced by the double motive of giving a pseudo-parliamentary basis to the class dominance of the Arab effendis, and a pseudo-popular backing to the opponents of the Jewish National Home and of the Mandate.”

The memorandum points out that the problem of self-government in Palestine “cannot be solved before friendly relations are established between Jews and Arabs” and declares that while the Jewish Agency cannot “therefore at the present juncture approve of the setting up of parliamentary institutions in Palestine, it believes that much can be achieved by other means to give the inhabitants of Palestine an increasing share in the government of the country.”

Among the measures suggested in the Jewish Agency’s memorandum for the government’s giving the population a greater share in the government and for bringing about an Arab-Jewish rapprochement are the following; obtain the advice of educated Jews and Arabs on important legislative and executive measures; the extension of the advisory committees with the Jewish and Arab communities having representation; further development of local government in the towns and villages; the government should make clear that all Arabs who live in Palestine and all Jews who desire to make Palestine their home are equally entitled to the rights and privileges of citizenship and that the collective rights of Jews and Arabs are on a similar basis of equality.

NAMES AIDS TO GOOD-WILL

Additional proposals are that Hebrew and Arabic should be used in the government services in such a manner as to satisfy the natural rights of Jews and Arabs; the government should encourage the formation of a joint federation of Jewish and Arab manufacturers, joint federations of Jewish and Arab merchants and the combination of Jewish and Arab chambers of commerce where two such chambers exist; cooperative credit societies should be encouraged, Jews and Arabs coming together for mutual help; agricultural unions should be fostered; efforts should be made to see that the greatest possible number of Jewish children learn Arabic and Arab children learn Hebrew, the government to aid this by grants to secondary schools and by giving preference in public appointments to candidates who know both Hebrew and Arabic; the government should aid in bringing Jews and Arabs together through the trade unions; joint professional associations should be encouraged.

Dissatisfaction with the government’s financial aid to the Jewish school system is voiced in the memorandum’s discussion on education in which it is stated that the educational institutions which the Jewish Agency maintains had a budget of $637,720 for the year 1929-1930, exclusive of a supplementary budget of $60,750. Estimating that the total expenditure of the Jewish school system was $875,000, the memorandum points out that the government’s grants to Jewish education totalled $99,550 and adds that the schools of the Jewish Agency cared for 18,250 children, whereas 21,259 pupils receiving instruction in the government’s schools warranted an expenditure of $609,795, indicating that $28.68 was expended on every non-Jewish child and only $5.45 was spent per Jewish child.

JEWISH EDUCATION NOT SUPPORTED

The memorandum complains that the government’s grants are based on the ratio of the Jewish population to the Arab population of the country and not on the number of Jewish children receiving education and notes that the contributions of the government have not even been in accordance with this accepted ration. The Jewish Agency recommends that the rate of contribution should be determined by fixing a suitable minimum and an additional allocation on the existing basis or “some other method which will take into consideration the Jewish share in the revenue and the number of Jewish children actually receiving education.”

The failure of the Palestine government to develop adequate sewerage systems, even in the large cities, the lack of systematic milk and dairy inspection and the absence of adequate provisions for controlling epidemics or for the isolation and care of contagious diseases are listed in the memorandum’s discussion on health. Although the mortality rate shows no decrease, the memorandum finds that the government is “steadily reducing its expenditure for health and elementary requirements are neglected.”

Charging that the government has made inadequate provisions for insane patients and no provisions for non-Jewish tubercular patients while the Hadassah Hospital at Safed can cope with hardly a third of the Jewish patients, the Jewish Agency’s memorandum complains that the Jews have failed to receive a proportionate share of the “inadequate provisions of the department of health.” The memorandum recommends an increase of the health budget and facilities for epidemic control and urges a just share of these services for the Jews in order to lighten the burden of the Jewish Agency.

In its concluding observations the memorandum notes the hostile views of certain officials in the Palestine government and in this connection says, “We believe that it lies within the Mandatory’s power to alter the atmosphere in which such divergences of view can affect the carrying out of its policy.” The necessity for the Mandatory’s framing a constructive policy and for indicating clearly to all concerned with putting it into effect that “they must give it loyal support” is stressed in the concluding statement of the Jewish Agency’s memorandum.