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 118

APPENDIX VIII STATEMENT ISSUED BY THE JEWISH AGENCY ON THE LABOUR SCHEDULE OF APRIL-JULY , 1937. The Executive of the Jewish Agency feels impelled to make public its position in regard to the decision of the High Commissioner by which the schedule for Jewish labour immigration to be placed at the disposal of the Jewish Agency has been fixed at 620 certificates for the four months from April to July 1937. The Executive of the Jewish Agency is compelled to lodge a strong protest against this decision which drastically restricts the scope of Jewish labour immigration and reduces it to insignificant proportions, glaringly in contrast with the urgent needs of the Jewish Diaspora and the Jewish labour requirements in Palestine. The Jewish Agency submitted an application for 11,250 immigration permits in respect of the current half year. This figure had been arrived at as a result of careful investigations with which representatives of the Government were associated. Government has informed the Jewish Agency that in fixing the present schedule it was guided by purely economic considerations based on the principle of the absorptive capacity of the country. In regard to this statement the Jewish Agency can only observe that the methods adopted;by the Government in measuring the country's absorptive capacity have in practice led to the complete negation of that principle. ' The sub-division of the schedule of 620 certificates authorised by the Government further accentuates the inequity of this allocation. The application of the Jewish Agency contained a separate item of 700 permits for a special category of immigrants to be absorbed in existing agricultural settlements and training centres, with the assistance of funds provided for this specific purpose by the Central Council for German Jewry. This item which was included in the previous two schedules does not form part of, but is additional to, the general estimate of labour requirements. In fixing the present schedule Government allocated 400 certificates under this head. Thus only 220 certificates are available for meeting the general demand of the Jewish labour market in all its branches, including agriculture, industry, building, transport, public works and various services.