WHY IMMIGRATION IS RESENTED

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 141, 2 July 1937, Page 7

WHY IMMIGRATION IS RESENTED

The forthceming report of the Royal Commission on Palestine gives speciftl importance to an admirable book on the situation there — Mr. Ernest Main'* "Palestine at the Crossroads" (says Mr. Robert Bernays, M.P.). Mr. Main, ■who has been in Palestine as the special correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, attempts a Teal objective study of ihe grievances of the Arabs and tho achievements of the Jews. It is an exceedingly difficult task, for the position in Palestine is such that it peculiarly easy, on insufficient knowledge, to take sides. Mr. Main is for the most part content to give the facts upon which a balanced judgment can be formed. His statistics of Jewish immigration, for instance, are particularly interesting. "When the War ended," lie writes, "the Jews in Palestine mimbercd 55,000. By March, 1925, Sir Herbert Samuel, the first High Commissioner, estimated the Jewish population at 108,000, neafly double what it had been seven years earlier. On June 30, 1936, the oficial estimate was 370,483." Thus the recorded Jewish immigration from 1920 to 1935 aggregates about a-quarter of a million. Improving the Land. That seems a colossal total for a country which is about the size of Walcg, and one can well understand the fear and dismay that it has created in the Arab population. But the gain has not all been to the Jew. Mr. Main gives an impressive account of how the Arab population has bencfited. The whole standard of living of the Arab population has improved. Much Arab land has, of course, passed into the hands of the Jews, but at immonsCly enhanced prices. "The average pfice of agrieultural land in the years immediatoly precedjng the Great War was 12s to 18s per dunam, whereas evon ,poor land tb-dhy makes £5 per dunam and good land as-muoh as £30 and more. Since the War it is estimated that about £10,000,000 sterling has changed hands as the result of saies by Arab to Jew." In thajk period the wages of the Arabs have matorially increased, and this has attracted a large flow of immigrants. "In the twelve years from 1920 to 1932, for every Arab who left Palestine, six came in. The birth rate has increased and the death rate haB declined. There has been a great extCnsion of health services." SevOre Competition. On tho other hand, Jewish immigration has resulted in increasingly severe competition for the Arab professional classes. For the Jewish professional men who have been coming into the country "are almost invariably of a higher professional and intellectual standard.,, Another factor that is productive of hostility is wbat would be regarded in England as the reactionary conservatism of the upper-class Arabs. They do not like the rising standard of living of the Arab labouring classes. It destroys the framework of feudalism from which they have dorivod their statui and power. They aro determined to prevent a diminution of their privileges. As I read with growing absorption Mr. Main's account of the issues at stake, I could not resist the conclusion that on paper, at any rate, the Jew had the stfonger case. But the Jews nccd more than logic_i£ they are to rotain and extend their "present position. They have to satisfy the Arab that their expansion is in fact a benefit and not a threat and that the prosperity of Palestine is one in which both races can share. It is earncstly to be hoped that the Royal Commission will bs able to demonstrate how this can be done.