PALESTINE WORKS PLAN

Taranaki Daily News, 19 November 1930, Page 7

PALESTINE WORKS PLAN

£2,500,000 . EXPENDITURE AID FOR LANDLESS ARABS . OPPORTUNITY FOR JEWS THE BRITISH GUARANTEE British Wireless. Rec. 5.5 p-m. Rugby, Nov. 17. When the Government’s Palestinian policy was discussed in the House of Commons to-night Dr. Shiels, Colonial Colonial Under-Secretary, emphasised that the Government had repeatedly affirmed its intention of carrying out the full mandate, and it stood by that. Regarding the projected development scheme, he said it was necessary to provide for an expenditure not exceeding £2,500,000, a large part of * which would be devoted to productive work such irrigation, drainage and other schemes designed to increase the geneial productivity of the country, and which would provide for the settlement of the land of about 10,000 families. In view of ' the present financial situation in Palestine the only way such a sum could be provided was by loan under guarantee of the British Government. After Christmas a Bill authorising the necessary guarantee would be introduced. The scheme was intended in the first x place to provide for those landless Arabs who could be shown to have been dispossessed as the result of land passing into Jewish hands, and any balance would be available for both Jewish and Arab settlement. The scheme was purely proof that the Government was not only attending to the needs of the landless Arabs but also making possible further opportunities for Jewish land settlement.