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 79

79 mènt of the position of the local Arab agriculturists, will, it is hoped, form a precedent for a series of development and settlement schemes in other parts of Palestine. The main elements of such schemes should be the discovery and proper utilisation of water resources, the setting aside of large areas for close settlement by Jews, and the consolidation of Arab holdings into compact blocks with the provision of irrigation facilities to make possible their intensive development. The question of iand disputes to which reference was made on previous occasions seems now more urgent than ever. The legislative position, and the administrative and judicial practice, governing the adjudication of land disputes, appear to be defective in many respects. They give rise to the fabrication of fictitious claims and encourage trespass and encroachment. The Jewish Agency would urge a comprehensive revision of the whole position with a view to providing an effective remedy for this serious evil, which unwarrantably undermines security of title. 9. It gives me pleasure to record the increased measure of attention devoted by the Government to the needs of Palestinian industry, in regard to which the Jewish Agency has made numerous representations. At the beginning of January 1936 a series of modifications of the customs tariff were enacted which have had a beneficial effect on some of the textile and metal trades. The Jewish Agency would urge that these modifications should form the beginning of a comprehensive revision of the Palestine tariff system, which will make it more effective in assisting the consolidation and expansion of local industry. I would recall that Jewish industry in Palestine already represents an investment of £7,000,000, that by the end 1934 it had reached an annual output of £6,500,000 —an increase of 160% in the course of four years—and that it now employs over 25,000 workers. Industry can already be classed as the most important single factor in the economic life of the country and as such it rightly claims a prominent place in the scope of the Government's activities. In addition to giving temporary protection to infant industries with prospects of establishing themselves on a competitive basis, the tariff system which the Jewish Agency desires to advocate should be such as to counteract the effects of "dumping" to which Palestine has fallen a helpless prey. Since it has been held that Palestine is precluded by the provisions of the Mandate from retaliating against dumping by discriminatory tariffs, it is submitted that the solution of the problem may be sought in the direction of substituting specific for ad valorem duties and of swiftly raising such specific duties on any article imported into Palestine by dumping methods, i.e.* sold in Palestine at a lower price than in the country in which it is manufactured. In addition to the adoption of such legislative measures