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 51

51 with which it had successfully experimented in the South : namely of entrusting Jewish District Officers with the care of zones of Jewish agricultural settlement. At that time, with the exception of the District Officer at Nathania who was in charge of the Emek Hefer and the Northern Sharon areas, there was not a single Jewish officer to look after the extensive areas of Jewish settlement in Samaria, the Emek and Upper Galilee. The urgency of the question was accentuated by the fact that nearly all Arab District Officers had during the disturbances signed the memorandum of Arab Government officials expressing open hostility to the policy of the Jewish National Home. In taking strong exception to this memorandum at the time of its publication the Jewish Agency had asked that the District Officers who had signed the memorandum should be relieved from any duty in respect of Jewish settlements: In May and in June, 1937, two new Jewish District Officers were appointed, of whom one was stationed in Afuleh. It was under-- stood that another District Officer would be stationed in one of the Samarian colonies, and further representations were made for the appointment of a Jewish District Officer at Safad. ROADS 69. An essential weakness of the Jewish position, which was revealed by the disturbances, was the inadequacy of the existing road system to ensure the security and satisfy the economic requirements of the Jewish population. Early in July, 1936, the High Commissioner's attention was drawn to this problem. The Jewish Agency urged a revision of Government's road building programme in the light of the experience gained during the disturbances and the speeding up of the construction of the roads especially required to ensure the safety of Jewish settlements. In a communication to Government on 12th July, 1936, the Executive put forward detailed proposals in this regard, summarising the reasons underlying them in the following terms : Firstly, there is the question of the settlements and areas the security of which cannot be maintained in winter without proper roads. Fortunately for these settlements — and for the security forces —■ the disturbances broke out in the dry season. A similar situation during the rainy period would have been disastrous, as the impassability of the existing roads would have made it im-