Report to the ... Zionist Congress and to the Council of the Jewish Agency in ... · 1935-08-01 · 8.1935 · p. Seite 442

strike of protest for May 25th, 1934. The strike was universally observed and passed with complete quiet and dignity save at Tel- Aviv, where an unauthorised Revisionist demonstration resulted in an ugly clash between a crowd and the police. 11. Basing its case on the growing shortage in the labour market the Executive made a plea for a supplementary schedule to be granted not1 as an advance on the next schedule, but as an addition to the one already given. In July and August, 1934, the situation was reviewed in a series of conversations with the High Commissioner, who finally intimated his consent in principle to the grant of a supplementary schedule, and after some further discussion of details fixed it at 1,200 certificates. The grant of a supplementary schedule was a departure to which the Palestine Government had previously resorted only once—in the year 1925. It was welcomed by the Executive not only as an addition of so many immigration certificates, but as an admission on the part of Government that the schedule they had previously granted was based on an under-estimate. The addition of 1,200 certificates to the schedule —-raising it to a half-yearly total of 6,800—lifted labour immigration from the total of 5,500 per half year at which it seemed to have remained fixed for the past year and a half. The increase dispelled the misgivings which had been widely entertained concerning the bounds which seemed, as it were, to have been set to Jewish labour immigration. The rise of the curve which was started by the supplementary schedule of August, 1934, was continued by the two subsequent schedules, and instead of the picture of stability presented by three consecutive schedules of practically identical size (5,500-5,500-5,600) the figures of the last three labour schedules bespeak a steady if slow rise (6,800-7,500-8,000). 12. From the schedule memorandum of September, 1934, onwards the scope of the economic survey on which the estimate of the Jewish Agency was based has been considerably extended. An effort has been made to present a comprehensive survey of the state of Jewish economic activity and to argue out as closely as possible the differences between the Jewish Agency's and the Government's points of view in assessing the country's absorptive capacity. While it was clear that it was the appreciation of the persistent labour shortage which caused Government to grant larger labour schedules than it had formerly considered admissible, the Executive has no reason to assume that the pains it took in presenting the case with a view to bringing this appreciation home to the Government were wasted. The Executive repeatedly approached Government with a proposal that the periodical investigation of the labour market might be carried out jointly by the Government and the Jewish Agency with a view to reaching an agreed schedule-figure. Government accepted the proposal as far as concerned the joint preliminary investigation, but declined to commit itself in any way with regard to the ultimate figure of the schedule. 442