Report to the ... Zionist Congress and to the Council of the Jewish Agency in ... · 1935-08-01 · 8.1935 · p. Seite 294

B. —Among the activities of the Immigration Department in organising the emigration offices abroad may be mentioned the appointment of training inspectors by the Palestine Office in Warsaw for the purpose of visiting the training centres and reporting on them to the Palestine Office in connection with the granting of certificates to halutzim. This supervision did much toput an end to competition between groups, disputes and other undesirable features of their activities. The Immigration Department issued regulations to the Palestine Offices with regard to' inspection of training and the activities of the Halutz organisations, and laid down rules for supervision by training committees. Aware of the importance of sending instructors from Palestine to direct the training of the young people preparing to immigrate, the Immigration Dept. helped to send eighty instructors, selected in agreement with the Labour Federation and the Hapoel Hamizrachi.. C. —The rights of the Revisionists and Betar with regard to immigration form a special question. In March, 1934, the Immigration Dept., in consultation with the constitutional advisers of Congress, sent instructions to the Palestine Offices to withdraw all immigration rights of Betar as a Halutz Organisation, owing to its boycotting of the immigration certificates of the Agency and its declaration that it would apply for certificates direct to the Government through the Farmers' Federation. When the Congress Court issued its decision, these rights were restored to Betar. Later, when the Revisionist Organisation decided to leave the Zionist Organisation, the Zionist Executive laid it down that Revisionist representatives had no right to participate in the committees of the Palestine Offices, though its right to receive immigration certificates was allowed until the matter would again be reviewed by the Congress Court. D. —The difficulties placed in the way of immigrating prompt thousands of Jews to seek every method of entering the country,, in spite of restrictions and prohibitions, and those who cannot wait their term for certificates avail themselves of any opportunity that arises to go to Palestine. The growth of the immigration movement brought with it " go-betweens," who made a business of helping tourists or immigrants to obtain visas. As a result of this illegal immigration, accompanied as it was by merciless abuse of the victims by these traffickers in certificates, the Government adopted severe measures to put a stop to it by the imposition of special requirements in the granting of transit visas (the deposit of £60 by each tourist), by a strict patrol of the coast line, and by the deportation and imprisonment of people found in the country without permission. The traffic in visas went beyond private hands and became exploited by parties and public workers in certain countries. The Immigration Department has fought with all its power against this deplorable exploitation for profit of the hunger for immigration.. 294