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 97

97 apart from such articles of the Mandate as are expressly mentioned in certain paragraphs. II. IMMIGRATION 1. It is the grievance of the Jewish Agency that Government has not adequately carried out the obligation to facilitate Jewish immigration imposed upon it by Article 6 of the Mandate and that in some respects its policy has not been in accord with that obligation. 2. In determining the size of the labour schedules Government has failed to take fully into account the country's growing economic absorptive capacity. The extent to which Government has under-estimated the actual possibilities of absorption is indicated by the labour shortage which persisted for a considerable time as well as by the fact, that large numbers of persons, Jews and non-Jews, who either entered or remained in the country without authority, were able to find permanent employment in Palestine. As a result of the indequate labour schedules the pace of the development of the Jewish National Home has been unduly retarded. 3. The restrictions recently introduced in the administrative practice of the Department of Immigration regarding the admission of dependents of persons resident in Palestine are unduly harsh. The category of dependent immigrants is now practically limited to young children, wives and old parents. It is the grievance of the Jewish Agency that parents who have not yet reached old age, as well as younger brothers and sisters and other near relatives are now refused admission although they are in many cases an actual charge on the residents in Palestine who send money abroad to maintain them. It is difficult to find justification for these restrictions on economic grounds. 4. The Jewish Agency further takes exception to the fact that the categories A (iii) (artisans with a capital of £250) and A (v) (persons having a capital of £500 who can prove that they can make a living in certain specific occupations) are now practically inoperative. The Jewish Agency can see no economic reason for the virtual closing of these two categories, members of which, as has been proved by experience, can establish themselves successfully in Palestine. 5. The Jewish Agency objects to the inclusion in the labour schedule of permits issued for students and for young trainees coming from Germany. It would urge the retention of the former practice under which these certificates constituted a special category outside the labour schedule. It can see no ground for deducting these entrants from the schedules, for in the measure as they complete their studies or courses of training and enter the