Speech #790139264

This phenomenal development has been due to three main causesthe provision of cheap capital by what Professor Bentwich describes as "philanthropiccapitalist instruments." protection of industry by carefully regulated tariffs. and the important monopoly for the production of electric power and light granted by the government to Mr. Pinhas Rutenberg. a Russian Jewish engineer. and now exploited by the Palestine Electric Corporation. Some of the conditions of this monopolistic concession are remarkable. not least the postponeiment of payment of customs duty on imported material "until the profits of the company. after writing off amortization. depreciation. and reserve. are first sufficient to enable the company to pay a dividend of at least 8 percent per annum tax free." For the years 192036 the principle of economic absorptive capacity governed the number of immigrant Jews on the labor schedule. This principle was first laid down In the Churchill memorandum of June 3. 1922. "This immigration cannot be so great In volume as to exceed whatever may be the economic capacity of the country at the time to absorb new arrivals." It was reaffirmed in the letter dated February 13. 1931. from the Prime Minister. Mr. Ramsay MacDonald. to Dr. Weizmann. which the Prime Minister described as "the authoritative interpretation of the white paper." In that letter it was stated that the criterion which would guide the Government in fixing the number of Jewish Immigrants would be the principle of economic absorptive capacity. It is. however. clear that if philanthropic capital is available. Irrespective of profit. electric power in quantity at very low cost. and protection by means of tariffs and exemption from taxation. industry could be artificially expanded to great dimensions. and absorptive capacity provided for very large numbers of Jewish immigrants. It would. indeed. be In the power of the Zionist organizations so to manipulate absorptive capacity as. in their judgment. circumstances might require. This question was considered with care by the Palestine Royal Commission. which pointed out the dangers inherent in the application of that principle alone. They gave their reasons for reaching the conclusion that political and psychological factors should also be taken into account in determining the numbers in the labor schedule. and that a political high level should be fixed at 12.000 per annum for the next 5 years. The importance of the decision and its effect on the development of the national home may be judged from the fact that in the period from the beginning of 1933 to August 1936 the number of Jewish immigrants exceeded 156.000a figure much greater than the total of recorded Jewish immigration from 1920 to 1932. inclusive. The reason for this remarkable movement in the year 1933 and succeeding years is to be found in events in Germany. The Nuremberg legislation to safeguard the purity of the German race and the abominable treatment of the Jews in Germany under the Nazi regime resulted in a mass movement of refugees from that country. and Palestine came to be regarded as the chief haven of refuge for German. and later also for Austrian. Jews. As antiSemitism spread in its more acute forms to other areas of Europe. that position became even more important. and great pressure was exerted on the Palestine Government and on the Government of the United Kingdom to open the door to Palestine still wider. In view of the refusal of other countries to admit refugees save in inadequate numbers. the demand was natural. but it ran counter to the policy recommended by the Royal Commission and subsequently adopted by the British Government. In the years 1937 to 1942. inclusive. the number of immigrant Jews was 50.197. The immigration of the Jews into Palestine has been conducted with outstanding ability. The Jewish Agency and the National Federation of Labor (Histadruth) have organized the recruitment. transport. and settlement of those admitted on the labor schedule. with amazing success. Criticism has been made in the past by the orthodox section of Jewry In Palestine that politics rather than religious devotion have been considered by the recruiting authorities. and it is. in fact. remarkable that whereas in the older settlements whicl were founded before the time of the Balfour Declaration the synagog was the center of the village life. in the later settlements that position is occupied by the village school.