Report to the ... Zionist Congress and to the Council of the Jewish Agency in ... · 1935-08-01 · 8.1935 · p. Seite 308

The construction of these camps has a two-fold significance : in the first place we see that some 1,000 Chaluzim, after having acquired sufficient experience in agricultural work, have during the past two years transferred to permanent settlement and thus make room for new immigrants who come in their places (see list in Annexe 1). Secondly, the camps have now received more than 3,000 labourers of both sexes, who are employed in agricultural wage labour (Annexe 2) and can be regarded as the most important factor in the agricultural labour of the country. (4) Training in Plantation Work. We have already referred to the necessity of training new immigrants in agricultural labour and making their work more productive. This problem has recently been extraordinarily acute,, as a considerable part of the experienced workers either went over to settlement of their own or to the building trade in the colony itself. We, therefore, found it proper to provide certain sums to enable the agricultural centre to organise systematic training for agricultural workers, for which experienced workers with farms of their own placed themselves at our disposal for a short period in order to work together with the new immigrants in the groves and thus initiate them into the regular course of work. In the year 5695 this training in agricultural work was organised in ten colonies, and in the light of the experiences gained this year we can regard the results as successful. In 5695, up to June, we expended £500 on this agricultural training work. (5) Creation of a fund for small loans for Married Agricidtural Labourers. As a result of the increase of immigration, particularly from the lands of Eastern Europe, the number of immigrants with large families has also increased. In order to help them in their initial settlement we have created a loan fund jointly with the loan funds of the workers in the colonies and the local Immigration Commissions. The purpose of this fund is to provide the immigrant families with small loans free of interest, to enable them to arrange to undertake work in the colony. We estimate this fund at present to be £200. (6) Training for Government Public Works. With the growth of the Jewish market for the building trade during the last two years and the increase of wages in this branch, Jewish labourers have given up employment in Government service (especially in the railway and police services). The Labour Bureau of the Histadruth has tried to mobilise a number of skilled workers in order to cover at least a small part of the manifold public works provided by the Palestine Government. AVith the help of the Political Department of the Jewish Agency we succeeded in obtaining from the Government Public 308