LEGACIES OF UNREST

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23231, 28 December 1938, Page 8

LEGACIES OF UNREST

Government and private agencies are relieving distress among the Arabs of Palestine, according to the Jerusalem correspondent of the Times. In revealing this, he says that continued unrest has crippled economic life, many of the well-to-do having been reduced to poverty, while the poor have been brought to the point of starvation. The story is pitiful, but not new. As long ago as August last there was published in London a vivid account of the deterioration of living standards among the Arab peasantry as the direct result of persistent disorders. Villagers, oppressed by fear, have kept close by their homes, neglecting work in the fields. Thus, crops have not been sown, or have been allowed to mature unharvested. The disorganisation of transport has prevented the marketing of the small amount of produce available. The Arabs have been driven to consuming their reserves —often, literally eating their seed corn —and thus have reached the point of utter destitution. Such being the conditions, it was inevitable that the luckless peasant should fall deeper into the clutches of the money-lender, that curse of the East. It has been calculated that the debts of the fellaheen have at least trebled since the disturbances began. Interest rates of from 30 to 60 per cent are common, and sometimes they range above the hundreds. The prospects many of these peasants have of freeing themselves from debt in their lifetime are exceedingly poor. All these things are the direct legacy of the disorders which have swept the country. Up to the end of 1935 standards of living in the villages had been steadily rising, but, since then, deterioration has been continuous. It is a sad commentary on the failure to compromise racial differences in the country that Palestine should be reduced to such a pass.