Report to the ... Zionist Congress and to the Council of the Jewish Agency in ... · 1935-08-01 · 8.1935 · p. Seite 472

of Jewish ships, manned partly or mostly by Jews. The Jewish Agency was instrumental in expediting the formalities necessary for the registration of these ships under the Palestinian flag. It helped to create conditions of fair competition for these undertakings, which hold out a promise of securing a permanent place for Jewish enterprise and labour in sea transport. IX.—Police and Security. 1. One of the results of the labour shortage was a wave of resignations of Jews from the Police Force, which at times threatened to assume an epidemic character. The rates of pay obtaining in the Police Force, low as they had been even in normal conditions as compared with the wages of Jewish labour, proved utterly inadequate in relation to the high wage level reached in the last two years and the general rise in the cost of living, which took place especially as a result of the rise of house rents. A number of outlying posts were left entirely without Jewish police personnel, while even in the big Jewish centres in town and country the ranks of Jewish policemen were seriously depleted and a general feeling of instability set in among them. Those Jews who remained in the force were depressed at seeing their numbers continually dwindling. It was clear that unless special efforts were made to provide new recruits, the position of the Jews in the Police Force would be reduced to an untenable level. Urgent steps were accordingly taken to secure suitable candidates for service in the Force. Since the particular difficulty experienced by the Police authorities had been to find Jewish policemen willing to serve in outlying rural areas, special care was taken to recruit candidates from among the agricultural communities. These efforts met with the ready co-operation on the part of the Police authorities and have produced good results. At the same time the Municipality of Tel-Aviv undertook the recruitment of new policemen for service in that city. As a result of both these efforts the number of Jewish policemen which had dropped from 300 in December 1933 to 253 in March 1935 rose by the end of June to 286 and seems assured of a further increase in the near future. The Jewish Agency has received high praise for the quality of the human material which it was instrumental in supplying. The Executive undertook at its own expense the provision of teachers in the three official languages to the Jewish recruits in the Police Training School. At the time of writing this Report the Police Training School had for the first time in its history a Jewish majority. 2. Upon the initiative of the Vaad Leumi consultations took place with the participation of the Jewish Agency on problems of housing for the Jewish members of the police and their eventual settlement on the land after fulfilling a long term of service. 3. The status of the Police Force at Tel-Aviv engaged the special attention of the Political Department, which had numerous 47 2