Report to the ... Zionist Congress and to the Council of the Jewish Agency in ... · 1935-08-01 · 8.1935 · p. Seite 448

checking the process of illicit settlement. The measures included the requirement of a deposit of £60 and the possession of a return ticket from all travellers (exceptingthose travelling first-class), the service of a warning on all tourists upon arrival that they must not take up employment, special steps to discover, with a view to deportation, the travellers who had remained in the country illegally, and measures to prevent the entry of people trying to evade the frontier control. 20. The Executive expressed strong opposition to the measures contemplated. While not in the least condoning the contravention of the law, it explained the reasons which had led to such a considerable increase of travellers remaining in the country and urged that the only radical way of doing away with the practice would be to grant adequate facilities for legal immigration of all categories. It urged that the system of police searches and deportations was liable to create a state of panic among newcomers, shatter enterprises already established and arouse public indignation. The Executive also pointed out that the warning which it was proposed to issue was not in keeping with the existing law which provided that travellers might apply to Government for registration upon finding employment. With regard to the deposit system, the Executive contended that it was liable to check the genuine tourist movement of persons of modest means. As a result of the representations made by the Executive the wording of the notice to travellers was amended so as to bring it into conformity with the law. As to the deposit system the Government agreed to exempt those travellers on whose behalf a personal guarantee was given by one of the members of the Executive. Otherwise the regulations were enacted without change on November 2nd, 1933. 21. Cases of deportation of travellers occurred throughout 1933, but in November the action of the authorities in this regard was intensified to such an extent that the term " tourist hunts " became a byword in Palestine. Searches were made in hotels and coffee-houses, travellers in buses and railways were occasionally stopped and asked for passports, and many bona fide residents of the country were subjected to great inconvenience. The measures taken caused great excitement throughout the Jewish community and led to clashes between members of the public and the police. The Executive made strong representations against the measures taken and in December the " hunt " was discontinued. Altogether thirty Jewish travellers and fifty illegal immigrants were deported during 1933. 22. As a result of the restrictive regulations imposed on the admission of Jewish tourists, the number of illicit settlers diminished in marked degree but, on the other hand, there was some increase in illegal entries.- The cause of the latter practice is to be found in the same circumstances that had been responsible for the unauthorised settlement of tourists. Both the tourist traffic and the 448