Political report of the Executive of the Jewish Agency submitted to the ... Zionist Congress and the ... session of the Council of the Jewish Agency · 1937-08-01 · 8.1937 · p. Seite 9

9 a greater measure to the perfection of machinery dealing with the applications — which made possible the expeditious disposal of a large number of applications which had accumulated during preceding years — than to the more liberal treatment of individual cases which had been adopted in 1934. 8. The third main indication of the restrictive tendency in immigration was Government's intention — which was reported in the press early in January 1936 — of raising the capital requirement for capitalist immigrants of the A (i) category from LP.1,000 to LP.2,000. This intended innovation was particularly alarming because it would have struck at the root of the supply of capital and of business enterprise, and thereby curtailed the absorptive capacity of the country for immigrants of all other categories. The Executive made strong representations against the proposed change. It pointed out that the restriction was not warranted by past experience, for it had not been shown that immigrants in possession of only LP.1,000 had not established themselves in Palestine satisfactory. In the second place, such a restriction would ruin the hope of a large number of Jews — in fact, the bulk of the class of person who were now immigrating under the A (i) category — to establish themselves in Palestine. The restriction would have a particularly painful effect in view of the severe restrictions on the export of capital which are in force practically throughout Europe. Finally, it would reduce very considerably the supply of capital for Palestine and administer a severe check to the country's development. Similar representations on the subject were made at the same time by the Executive in London, and the Secretary of State finally announced that the proposal had been abandoned. 9. Another subject connected with immigration, which engaged a great deal of the Political Department's attention during that period, was the plight of those thousands of Jewish residents of Palestine who, although completely absorbed into the economic and social life of its Jewish population, still continued to live in the country illegally, suffering from a number of disabilities — foremost among the them the inability to bring their families from abroad. On a number of occasions, both orally and in writing, as well as in the covering letter to the Annual Memorandum presented to the League of Nations (Appendix II) the Executive urged Government to introduce a measure of wholesale registration of these