BUILDING A NATION

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume 65, Issue 99, 17 December 1943, Page 5

BUILDING A NATION

SETTLEMENTS IN PALESTINE

FARMING ON THE COMMUNAL

SYSTEM

WHAT THE ZIONIST MOVEMENT IS DOING

In an account of a holiday visit spent in Palestine, after being repatriated from a war prisoners* camp in Italy, Private W. C. Balloch, of Dunsandel, gives an interesting description of a visit to a Jewish communal farming settlement. The one visited was Degania, situated *on the shore of Lake Tiberius, about seven miles south west of the town of Tiberius. He and his companions, he mentioned, had been a little doubtful about this particular visit, but he did not know why, because the time spent there were days which a country-bred chap could never' regret. During" their stay there, the hardships of the past few months faded from their memories and they forgot that they even belonged to such a thing as an army. Here is his account of the visit: Genesis of the Movement

Hundreds of years ago the Jews had been persecuted and driven from their own land, and they were now being persecuted in the countries in which their forbears had found rtfuge. Several years ago an organisation known as the Zionist Movement was formed, and they, with no country in the world, claimed that Palestine was their country an„ that they must return to it and establish themselves there for the future generations. So to Palestine they came, bringing with them the courage and initiative to build.a nation. Many of them went on to the land but met with adverse conditions. Undaunted they drained swamps and irrigated their land, bringing it into production in a few years.

To guard against the hostilities of I the Arabs they had to settle communally, and so were in a position to defend themselves and their property. Had they settled individually on their land, as we in New Zealand do, they would have been wiped out, just as were the early settlers in North America by the Red Indians. Hostilities between the Jews and the Arab grew to such an extent that the British Government was obliged, round about 1936 to send a large body of soldiers to reinforce the British police force there. At the present time there is quite aj strong Palestinean Police Force,! consisting of most Britons and1 some Palestinians. Scattered throughout the whole iof the country are police posts. Hostilities have now almost ceased, but each settlement has its own police to protect its property from the maraudering Arabs, who, too lazy to farm for themselves, are ever ready to steal their neighbours' produce. Degania has a barbed wire barricade almost surrounding it and a few concrete pill boxes. One of the laws of the country, which is strictly enforced is that no person other than officials are permitted to have firearms in their possession. As we wandered into the settlement the first person we accosted ►was a German Jew, a highly edu-

cated man who spoke perfect Eng-' lish. He assured us of our welcome and took us to afternoon tea, which was then being Iserved. We went to a huge community dining hall, containing several large tables, around which were seated men and women of all ages enjoying their afternoon meal. It was with a feeling of embarrassment that we entered, that room to mingle with perhaps a hundred and fifty strangers when more than half iof them were of the fair sex. Our embarrassment, however, was short-lived, and each of us soon became, almost automatically, one of that large family. i Up-to-date Settlements

Here, ion a farm of 500 acres, lived and prospered 55 families or 280 people, who were typical pioneers. They worked long hours, they worked hard, men and women alike in the fields, but they, were happy. They were doing their share in bringing this land of theirs into production, thus making a home and a land for their own people, not only for the present, but for future generations. They did not work for money, but were happy, contented, had plenty of good plain food, exercise, sunshine and fresh ,air.

After our refreshments a young man, one of tlie settlement police, took us under his wing and proceeded to show us around the settlement. Adjoining the dining hall was the huge kitchen with its rows of modern cookers and washers. We visited the school, also up-to-date. Hebrew is the language spoken throughout Palestine but the children now learn English as well. Built above the school was a beautiful little museum, all the exhibits being from Egypt, Palestine, Transjordan, Lebanon and Syria. Children of pre-school age are cared for in a nursery by the only nurse on the settlement. At this age they are taught to be self-reliant. From the ages of six to 14 they go to school and from 14 to 18 attend school in the mornings and work in the afternoons. Some of them go to the cities to learn trades * and professions which will be in keeping with the lives of the settlers. We were shown the laundry, the library, reading and writing rooms. Each married couple has its own sleeping quarters, but the single men and single women are accommodated in separate dormitories. During the1 long winter evenings the people make their own entertainment with lectures, concerts and dances. The summer routine is as follows: Rise 5.30 a.m., light meal and work till 8.30, breakfast and work till 12.30, dinner 1 p.m., siesta till 3.30, after- ; noon tea and work till 8, followed jby the evening meal. The meals are lof a good wholesome nature and all the food is grown upon the settlement. Fish, all types of fruit and I vegetables, home-made bread, butj ter, milk, cheese and honey seem to i cover their diet. Visitors to the settlement were frequent and, while we were at Degania came a party of 40 children from Tel-aviv on an educational tour. They were eager to learn about New Zealand, Egypt, and any other country in which .we had been.

Work oei the Farm Next morning we wandered around the farmyard. How similar it was to that on a large and old-established property in New Zealand. There were several hundred head of poultry,' healthy, well-housed and in general wonderfully well cared for. A large American truck, the only one on the settlement, was being laden with bananas bound for

Jerusalem. Another party of men and women were grading potatoes. A waggon drawn by mules and laden with green hay had just arrived from one of the fields. The hay was for the cows, which were hand-fed throughout the whole of the year. They were Friesians, 90 in all, and at the time iof the visit, were milked by hand three times a day. This work was allotted to seven women and a youth and the milking hours were 4.30 p.m., midnight and 8.30 a.m. Sufficient cream is separated to meet the requirements of the settlement and the remainder of the milk is taken to a district factory where it is made into butter and cheese.

Labour-saving Machines After breakfast we went further afield and saw a modern tractor and pick-up hay baler at work, and, a short distance away, another tractor was ploughing a field. We were greatly impressed at seeing such a range of modern machines and implements in the Middle East, as prior to our visit here we had seen only the. crudest of implements used. No live stock was grazed upon the farm, therefore there was no call for wire fences. TRere was, SlOWever, on one side of the farm, a hedge similar to macrocarpa.

A woman was at work irrigating a field of several acres of pumpkins or marrows. Practically the whole of the farm oould, if required, be brought under irrigation. The water was pumped by electricity from'the Jordan, which bordered the farm, into an aqueduct. This ran across the farm and from it water was distributed to the various fields. Moles cause quite a lot of trouble here as the water is apt to seep into their burrows instead of flowing along the proper channels. We thought that perhaps this difficulty could be overcome by digging out the moles, but were told that one might dig and follow these little subterranean passages for days before finding an animal. With the warm climate and irrigation eight crops of alfalfa or lucerne per year are cut. Wheat grown on the farm is harvested with a modern American header-harvester. There is a shortage of labour at present as a large majority of the young men are in the British Army and many of the younger women are in the W.A.A.C.

No Cash Wages The work of the women settlers varies a great deal. Possibly four of them do the kitchen work for a week and then change over to the fields or the laundry. There is a manageress, however, who is, more or less, in sole charge of the domestic affairs. The finance is controlled by a secretary-manager, who is elected by the people. Individually the people receive mo cash at all and money is not required unless for the annual holiday which is generally spent in one of the cities. For this they are granted only sufficient money to meet their requirements. No steps are ever taken in any matter without the sanction of the whole of the people. If a man from outside marries a girl from the settlement, he can, if he desires it, become automatically a member of the community. When afflicted with old age or illness, he or she is cared for for as long as is necessary. The spirit of the people is that of communism, but in its truest form.

One morning we hitch-hiked to the hydro-electricity works about 10 miles from the settlement on the river Jordan. From here the whole