Report to the ... Zionist Congress and to the Council of the Jewish Agency in ... · 1935-08-01 · 8.1935 · p. Seite 83

(8) The Executive of the Jewish Agency shall make special grants for the instruction of new immigrants in agricultural work in the settlements by experienced workers. (9) The Executive of the Jewish Agency shall grant a sum for a special fund, from which small loans shall be given to new immigrants with large families to facilitate their first steps in the country and enable them to settle down to employment as hired labourers in the colonies. (10) The General Council views with great concern the steady decrease in the number of Jews employed in the Civil Service (public works and buildings, Post Office, railways, police, etc.), and calls upon the Government to discontinue this curtailment of the Yishuv's rights and to establish conditions that will enable the Jewish worker to take that share in the economic life of the country, to which the Jewish contribution to the public revenue entitles him. At the same time, the General Council stresses the necessity for planned action on the part of the Executive, which shall improve the conditions of life of the Jewish worker in Government employment and make it easier for him to settle down to his work, by the provision of immediate assistance for bousing, education, instruction, professional training, etc. (11) The General Council declares that the activities of the Workers' Council in Haifa, directed towards the penetration of Jewish labour into shipping and fisheries, and the strengthening of its position in the ports, are of the highest Zionist importance. The Council directs the Executive to make provision for the expansion of these activities by creating training centres for Jewish seamen in Palestine and abroad, and by concentrating Jewish port labourers in settlements on the coast. The Council sends a message of greeting to the pioneers of Jewish shipping, to the owners of the first Jewish ships, and appeals to the Jewish public at large to support their activities. (12) The General Council approves the decision of the Budget Commission to separate the Labour Department from the Immigration Department and to render it independent under the direction of a member of the Executive and with its own budget. The difficult situation of Jewish labour in town and country necessitates the inauguration of planned activity on a large scale in this direction. It is essential, therefore, to create within the Labour Department special machinery for organising this activity. (13) The General Council considers essential the establishment in the towns and settlements of public committees consisting of representatives of all sections of the Yishuv which, acting in conjunction with the Executive of the Jewish Agency, shall endeavour to secure the upholding of the principle of Jewish labour by means of social and economic pressure. (14) The General Council considers it essential that the idea of Jewish labour shall penetrate and sink into the Zionist movement, and proposes to the Executive of the Jewish Agency the holding of a propaganda month throughout the Diaspora, specially devoted to explanation of the problems of Jewish labour in Palestine. (15) The General Council stresses the necessity for assistance to Jewish planters who uphold the principle of Jewish labour by means of cheap credit, the establishment of co-operatives for the marketing of fruit, and so forth, and directs the Executive to give effect to this suggestion. The Council welcomes the scheme for the establishment of an agricultural bank of the Jewish Agency, and instructs the Executive to further this project. IV. FINANCE. 1.—Loam, The General Council welcomes the initiative displayed by the Executive of the Jewish Agency in securing a loan of £500,000 from Lloyds Bank and the Anglo-Palestine Bank, and approves all the measures taken by the Executive in connection therewith. *3