Kaitaia Soldier Visits Jew Communal Farm

Northern Advocate, 17 December 1942, Page 2

Kaitaia Soldier Visits Jew Communal Farm

A most interesting and informative description of Jewish communal farming in Palestine is given in a letter from Corporal Deb Coulter to his family at Kaitaia. Corporal Coulter writes: I must tell you all about a trip I had to a Jewish farm communal settlement as it was most interesting and certainly opened my eyes. It was a real education. There are all sorts of different trips run from camp and we were shown everything on the farm and the working and financial problems of these Jewish settlements were explained. About 25 of us arrived with our special guide at the settlement about 3 o'clock in the afternoon and were told to make ourselves comfortable on the lawn while they found the head of the settlement to show us round. The grass on this well-kept lawn looked very familiar so I asked what it was called. He told me it was kikuyu, and it came from Africa. Community Meals Presently we were invited inside for afternoon tea and we had beautiful homemade bread, butter and some concoction of dates, olives, grapes, etc., lor jam. Nowin this settlement there are 60 families and, like the army, they have one big dining room where they all have their meals. Three or four young' women look after the big kitchen and see that everyone is well fed. Everything is spotlessly clean and we were waited on hand and foot. The tea had no milk or sugar, but a lemon took the place of milk and there were dates to take the place of sugar—rather a queer mixture but it tasted very nice. After we had all we could eat (as this bread was 100 per cent.) we went out on t.o the lawn "again and the head of the village explained how these settlements were run. This particular settlement was started 15 years ago with a few families and 12 watchers. These watchers (we call them pickets) had to patrol the whole area of 500 acres to make sure no Arabs came around, as the law here says that if an Arab pitches a tent and starts to till the soil that land automatically becomes his, so you can realise what a job they had getting started in a place where they were not. wanted bv the Arab. Money Subscribed by jews The necessary money for the start of the farm came from a Jewish National Fund, which is subscribed by Jews and those interested in the welfare of the Jews in any part of the world, chiefly U.S.A. As these settlements grow, all the money made off the land goes into improvements, more houses, new stock, etc. At the present time the value of the farm buildings, stock, etc., is £40.000, and £25,000 is owed to the Jewish National Fund and £7OOO to the Anglo-Palestine banks. Last year gross returns were £15,000, of which £3OOO was profit. This either goes into improvements or paying off more of the mortgage. There are elections every year to elect a working committee, school committee and a reception committee; 30 per cent, of all these committees must he women.

The working committee is the chief one and is responsible for the whole settlement. buying and selling stock and stores and allotting different jobs to the workers and patching up any family quarrels (which are almost unheard of). There are higher committees elected every year in Tel-a-viv, Haifa and Jerusalem, and these committees are responsible for all the marketing of the produce, etc. The middle man is cut out and the Jews on these committees get pushed out if thev don’t give satisfaction. Community Nursery

The first place we were shown was the nursery where all the children in the settlement were looked alter bv specially trained nurses until they are old enough to go to school. AH the babies go into these nurseries when they are one month old. and only at certain times can they see their parents. They have little beds complete with mosquito nets, tinv tables and chairs, plates, cues and spoons Thev have a miniature bathroom with tinv showers and the whole building inside look.'; like a doll’s house. Thev have their own kitchen and they all live there as happy as can be until they are big enough to start school, when they move into slightly larger beds, chairs, tables, etc.

Women Work In Fields Tlie married people mostly liv- in iiitL on< -room huts or several couple? in a ]arg“r building. Just a bedroom is all •'hey need as the wife has no cooking 10 do or children to mind. Their place is our in lhe fields wilh Ihe men.

All the furniiure is made bv the sol tinmen! carpenters, as arc the 'new houses, so they have little expense. The next place we visited was the washhouse where four young women do all the washing, ironing and mending for the settlement. Of course they have electric washing machines to help them. You can just imagine doing 60 families’ washine and mending, can’t you? The bathrooms and shower houses are also looked after by another person, so you can see it is run almost on Army lines. The next place we visited was the cowshed where 85 Holsrein cows are milked three times a dav. Most of the milk is sent to town, though thev had a little 40 gallon separator to get cream for their butter. All the cows are milked bv hand and they looked vc-rv well. A cow here is worth about £6O or £BO and a bull about £3OO, so its a pity, you can’t send ever a shipment of bobbv calves. There were hundreds of fowls and they, too. were well looked after and showed good returns. The rest of the farm was in vegetables and cereals and it; looked splendid. The only animals that did nor look too good were about 150 fat tailed sheep and they always look scraggy. During the off season when there is nothing to eat. the sheep live on the fat stored up in their tremendous tails. It is something like the camel’s hump. We arrived back at the dining hall for tea and had some German sausage and some queer dish cf tomatoes and hash with a few olives (which are awfully sour). As our manners were verv good we ate everything except the olives and we scraped our plates into one dish. Then we had our pudding, a kind of cereal with lots of milk. It was rather salty hut not bad at all, really. Then of course we had our lea, lemon and dates with seme home-made bread and butter to finish off a very interesting meal. Escapees From Europe Before We left we were given an invitation to spend any of our holidays at any settlement. Evcrvone was welcome and it would cos! us nothing. There are nurses and sisters to care for the sick and wounded and all medical treatment for Arab or Jew is free. A lot of the people in this settlement had only escaped from Europe a lew months ago and they were starting off to become members of the community. At present the population of. Palestine is 1.50C.0C0 with 1.C00..000 Arabs and 500,000 Jews and the Jews’ idea is lo build the country up to 4.000,000 inhabitants which Palestine supported 2000 years ago.