Urge That Palestine’s Industrial Development Be Planned by Experts

A plea for the planned industrial development of Palestine was made by Joseph Winston, engineer and city planner, in an address delivered at the first General Meeting of the American Economic Committee for Palestine, held last night at the Park Royal Hotel.

“Palestine is old in human history,” said Mr. Winston. “Within its confines was born much that has determined the course of contemporary civilization. Yet, from the industrial point of view it is still new territory.” Referring to the rapid growth of Palestine under Jewish influence, particularly since the World War, Mr. Winston declared that “Palestine was converted from a sleepy, indolent, changeless, primitive country into a beehive of activity and industry.

“Other countries have gone through the various stages of development before arriving at their present industrial position. But in the process, their people endured much and suffered many setbacks. Palestine must profit by their example and avoid their pitfalls. This can be done only if the development of the country takes place in a logical, uniform and balanced manner. There must be a plan—a practical, comprehensive plan, carefully thought out and with a definite purpose in view.

“Palestine will be developed through the utilization of its abundant resources and its strategic location. Palestine connects Occident with Orient, the North with the South. Surrounded by backward countries, Palestine is

destined to become a thriving, industrial nation.”

Other speakers at the meeting were Dr. Paul P. Gourrich, consultant economist; Edward A. Norman, financier; Joshua Morrison, economist, and Robert Szold, ranking American officer of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, Vice-President of the Zionist Organization of America and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the American Economic Committee for Palestine.

Israel B. Brodie, President of the Committee, who presided, delivered an introductory address in which he recalled that the American Economic Committee for Palestine was founded in New York early last year “to encourage and give guidance to a continuous and ever-increasing flow of investors and of well-managed investments in Palestine.” He pointed out that the committee of which Judge Julian W. Mack is the Honorary President, consists of one hundred leading friends of Palestine throughout the country.

SOUNDS WARNING OF LAND SPECULATION

A warning that, unless proper steps are promptly taken, the present prosperous status of the citrus industry in Palestine might lead to harmful inflation in the price of land suitable for orange growing was sounded by Dr. Gourrich, who is connected with one of America’s leading banking houses and is a member of the Executive Board of the Committee dealing with the functions of the Committee’s Economic Bureau in Tel Aviv. He expressed gratification at the recent news that a body, representative of various elements of the Jewish community of Palestine, including the Farmers’ Federation, and the General Zionists and the Jewish Federation of Labor, had been organized through the Committee’s Tel Aviv Bureau, with matters in connection with the sale of agricultural land and orange groves. “Frankly,” said Dr. Gourrich, “we are disturbed by the possibility of speculation in orange groves. We would much rather see profits made by selling oranges than by selling orange land.”

Declaring that “the absorptive capacity for settlers in Palestine will be what Jewish capital and brains will make it,” Dr. Gourrich stated that the growth of Palestine will depend upon the expansion in the industrial basis of Palestine’s economy, “an economy whose markets logically include its adjacent areas in the East, outlets in the British Empire at large, and for some products, such as oranges at present the world market at large. It is for this reason that in such investigations as the Committee conducts with regard to potential markets, we always endeavor to take into consideration conditions in territories adjacent to Palestine. The primary asset of the Committee’s Tel Aviv Bureau is that it is entirely disinterested. The facilities accorded by the Tel Aviv Bureau were increasingly recognized by prospective investors now living in Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Danzig, Roumania, Holland, South Africa and even in the Sudan.”

“It is,” Dr. Gourrich continued, “perhaps too early to give a full account of the work of the Tel Aviv Bureau. However, it is worthwhile to note that of the sixty-one inquirers at the Tel Aviv office who expressed their intention to invest an aggregate minimum of $1,500,000 in Palestine, fifty-one are already resident in the country. Mr. Brodie, the President of the Committee, estimates that about 300 American Jewish families, possessing resources of $2,250,000, settled in Palestine during 1932.”

After reviewing the present status of the orange industry in Palestine, which, said Mr. Norman, had thus far resisted the fall in prices which had affected almost every other agricultural commodity in the world, Edward A. Norman declared it is to be essential that a plan be devised for assuring the continued prosperity of the Holy Land’s citrus industry. Edward A. Norman is the author of a memorandum dealing with the development of cooperative methods in Palestine, written as long ago as 1929. He is particularly interested in the cooperative possibilities of the country, having made an exhaustive study of cooperative movements in America and Europe. He expressed the belief that the need for adequate planning is particularly urgent in view of the recent increase in acreage under cultivation and of the considerably larger crops which will be available for marketing within the next few years. He characterized the meth-

ods now in vogue as little short of haphazard. This situation, if permitted to continue, he said, would inevitably cause great loss to the industry. He stated that, while “Pardess” (the largest orange-growers cooperative in Palestine) is a noteworthy and efficient organization, it fails to assume the proportions for a solution of the whole problem.

In order to meet the needs of the situation, Mr. Norman suggested the establishment of a cooperative marketing system which would embrace a large majority of the Jewish growers.

‘”An organization,” Mr. Norman said, “that controlled a few million cases per year could pool the fruit of its members and it would be able to pack its fruits by grades. At the end of the season each farmer would receive for the oranges marketed for him the average price realized on each grade. A trade mark could be established for the high qualities and advantageus disposal in various directions cauld be made of the poorer ones. Public knowledge of the brand could be created by wise advertising. In the end such a cooperative might obtain or hold for the fruit the higher prices to which consistent good quality would entitle it.”

The farmers, Mr. Norman pointed out, have not proven to be readily and generally responsive to the idea of a coordinated marketing agency. Experience with farmers’ cooperatives in other countries indicates that it would be inadvisable to superimpose such an agency upon existing forms; it would have to be developed naturally out of the circumstances prevailing within the Palestine citrus industry itself. However, there are, he stated, indications that in Rehoboth, Petach Tikvah, and several other colonies in Palestine local sales cooperatives are in operation which may some day be the first units of a federation such as the situation seemed to require.

Mr. Morrison described the work of the Palestine investment groups with which the Committee has been experimenting and which are being directed by Joseph Shubow in the Committee’s behalf.