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 98

98 labour market, the vacancies filled by them do not figure in the estimates of absorptive capacity on the basis of which the Jewish Agency applies for new labour immigration certificates. 6. The Jewish Agency can find no justification for the practice, which appears to be followed by Government, of leaving out of account the share due to Jewish labour on public works and services when assessing the country's absorptive capacity for purposes of immigration. Paragraph 16 of the Prime Minister's letter to Dr.'Weizmann expressly provides that this branch of employment should be taken into account in the determination of labour schedules. 7. Regret has to be expressed that Government has not adopted the practice of providing the Jewish Agency with detailed information as to the reasons for the discrepancies between the schedules actually granted and the estimated requirements as submitted by the Jewish Agency. It would submit that the provision of such information is highly desirable in the interests of an effective cooperation between the Jewish Agency and Government in the sphere of immigration. 8. The Jewish Agency views with grave concern the large and continuous influx of unauthorised migrants from the neighbouring countries which results from the uncontrolled state of the land frontiers of Palestine. This influx deprives Jewish immigrants of the opportunities of absorption created by Jewish effort and raises grave social and security problems. The Jewish Agency would urge that effective measures be taken to put an end to such infiltration. III. LAND 1. Government has failed to follow an active policy of encouraging close settlement of Jews on the land, as enjoined bv Article 6 of the Mandate, particularly in those areas where such settlement cannot be undertaken without Government assistance. 2. No adequate measures were taken to demarcate and preserve State and waste lands and to establish its rights therein. It has not usually been represented by competent persons, with sufficient legal training, in proceedings for the settlement of land titles which might concern State lands. 3. Government has failed adequately to implement its obligations under Article 6 of the Mandate to make State and waste lands available for close settlement by Jews. The limited areas of State land leased to Jews were for the most part either sand dunes or swamps which could only be put to use by a large expenditure for reclamation works. ■1. Government is responsible for the uneconomic distribution