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 17

17 letter. He emphasised that no legislation of this kind should have been embarked upon before a comprehensive inquiry into the whole problem of land tenure and land development had been conducted. He stated that the Jewish Agency would be prepared to cooperate in any positive scheme for benefitting alike the Jewish settlers and Arab fellahin, but that it was determined to fight any attempt to strip the Prime Minister's letter of all positive content and to give effect only to its negative elements. 18. On January 29th the High Commissioner received the representatives of the Arab political parties in Palestine and conveyed to them the reply of the Secretary of State to the memorandum which they had submitted to the High Commissioner on the 25th November. The terms of that reply were communicated to the Jewish Agency on the same morning. In. the statement, the Arab representatives were informed that the Secretary of State had approved in principle the proposal of the High Commissioner that the Palestine Government should take legislative action on the lines which he had recommended, namely that except in the sub-District of Beersheba and in urban areas, and also except as regards land planted with citrus, no landowner should be permitted to sell any of his land unless he retained a minimum area which was sufficient to afford a means of subsistence to himsell and his family; and that (as a safeguard against collusive sales) this minimum area should be inalienable and should revert to the Government if it ceased to be cultivated by the owner-occupier. It was further proposed that the High Commissioner should have the power to approve the sale of a subsistence area if he was satisfied that this would be to the public good: forexample where a subsistence area was needed for suburban development or was blocking the development of rural land or an important irrigation or drainage scheme. The procedure of applying the scheme remained yet to be worked out and as regards its details the advice of the Arab leaders would be welcomed. Subsistence areas would have to be defined and prescribed, having regard to the conditions of cultivation present in each region, and the extent of those subsistence areas would be varied from time to time as the land in question was improved or as irrigation became possible. 19. In communicating the same statement to the Executive of the Jewish Agency, the Chief Secretary indicated that the sub-