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 33

33 It had to meet an incessant stream of requests and enquiries from rural settlements and urban communities all over the country which were being caught in the quickly spreading wave of terrorism. The Department established day and night duty and maintained close contact, throughout the duration of the disturbances, with all centres of Jewish settlement, on the one hand, and with the authorities responsible for public security, on the other. There was a constant transmission of requests for assistance and of suggestions for preventive and punitive action. 42. It was found at an early stage that assistance at headquarters alone was insufficient. The growing menace of the disturbances produced considerable strain in the relations between the Jewish population and the local authorities of the Government. It was difficult to ensure an equal measure of attention on the part of the officials to all the local demands which converged upon them and a common measure of discrimination between the essential and the incidental. Moreover, in view of the fact that most of the administrative centres to which Jewish areas were attached were situated in purely Arab towns (Jaffa, Ramleh, Tulkarm, Nazareth, Beisan) which in themselves became centres of disorder, it was most difficult and often quite impossible for Jews to resort to them. To meet these contingencies, the various districts were frequently visited by members of the Political Department who arranged local and regional meetings at convenient points between the authorities concerned and the representatives of the Jewish population. At such meetings misunderstandings were cleared up, the local claims were sifted out and presented more effectively and closer contact was established between the Jewish population and the Government. The system introduced by the Jewish Agency of setting up regional committees of Jewish settlements for purposes of mutual assistance and joint representations to the Government was extended and strengthened. 43. Next to the problem of elementary security, the representations of the Jewish Agency were concerned with the maintenance of the normal flow of economic life and of the system of communications. An extraordinary initiative was displayed by the Jewish population in adapting itself to the adverse conditions and, wherever possible, of breaking new ground. All these efforts called for assistance and co-ordination. In the very first few days of the riots, steps were taken to enable Jewish bus routes between towns