The Cordova daily times., 1923-03-30
HOLY LAND IS SAIDLACK0F
 FERTILE SOIL

JER U SALEM, MdTCu oU.-AuuiooI
 E. Southtard, American Consul here has just completed an exhaustive survey of the commercial and agri-
 cultural resources of Palestine. He has also investigated the subjects ol port development, hydro-electric re- sources, irrigaton and banking. IT . view of the optimistic reports issued
 by those seeking to make the Jewish National Home in Palestine suc'
 cess, it is interesting to note that the American Consul entertains ser
 ious doubts regarding the agrl-
 cultural and industrial resources o1
 the country.
 Approximately one-third of the area of Palestine proper" says he l"or roundly 5000 square miles, is barren land capable of little, if any agricultural development. Fully an additional fifth of the total area or more than 3,0O0,000 acres, has definite agricultural possibilities; but irrigation and other more or less expensve requirements will consid- erably prejudice the profits to De obtained from farming. The country is sparsely settled, and much of the land has been left fallow for cen turies. At the present time the | tinn in all Palestine amounts to fewer than 100000 acres.'
 American business men who re- gently visited Palestine have found confirmation of MT. Southard's ob- servations in the great stretches Of rocky and barren land. Only in the broader valleys and plains is it at all fertile, and the Arabs, who form S5 per cent of the population, have difficult time eking out an exist ence. It can hardly be expected, therefore, these Amercan travellers believe, that the Jews of the world will be attracted to the so-called National Home" set up in the Holy Land by Great Britain.
 The number of Hebrews who have come to settle here from the United States and other countries is rela- lively small. Of the 100000 popula- tion of Palestine, only il per cent is Jewish. Those particular calllngs for which Hebraws throughout all times have shown an especial predi- lection-clothing manufacture, mer- chandising, banking and money changing-are singularly lacking in the Holy Land. Industrial activity is almost negligible. Fruit growing and souvenir making are the princi' pal pursuits.
 Most of the Jews who have left America for what they believed to be "The Promised Land" have found l life in Palestine difficult and ex.
 pensive. Many of them have en-
 gagged in small farming and frui
 culture. Others have set up smal
 retail stores in Jaffa, Haifa and othel
 large towns. The main streets O.
 Jerusalem and Jaffa now resemble
 busy retail centers in the East Side
 of New York The Hebrew and Eng
 fish languages vie with Arabic a! the prevailing tongues in the com
 mercial marts.
 Palestine" says Consul Southart in his report, ''is a small country
 without demonstrated natural re
 sources of any particular importance
 Its population is small and will no
 for some years possess any consid
 erable purchasing power. Within its
 own limits it wll produce or con
 sume little as compared with the
 average world political or commercial
 unit"
 i The Consui's statement that the local poulation neither produce nor consume much explains why the WOIlu Jc" HdS ouSH 1CluClaASC III
 colonizing the Holy Land. The Arat population is proverably poor and produces little beyond a few staples of the farm and vineyard. The Jew who is essentially a merchant and trader, finds it impossible to live off the Arab, and he finds it equally impossible to exploit his own people. American visitors usually leave Palestine with the conviction that if it were not for it's historical and Biblical associations and traditions, the Holy Land would figure little in the worlds lifeg There is firm be- lief among disinterested Americans that Great Britain would willingly withdraw from its costly occupation of the country if it were not for the security of the Suez Canal, which is only 200 miles away.