The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-03-25
SO|L IN PALESTINE BARREN AS WHOLE,
 DECLARES CONSUL
Eleven Per Cent of 100000 Population HebreW-Lit-
 tie Industrial Activity

JERUSALEM, March 24.-(By Asso-
 ciated Press. )-Addison E. Southard,
 American consul here, has just com
 pleted an exhaustive survey of the
 commercial and agricultural re-
 sources of Palestine He has also in
 vestigated the subjects of port de-
 Nelopment, hydroelectric resources,
 irrigation and banking. In view of
 the optimistic reports issued by those seeking to make the Jewish national
 home in Palestine a success. it Is
 interesting to note that the Ameri- can consul entertains serious doubts regarding the agricultural and indus trial resources of the country.
 Approximately one-third of the area of Palestine proper" says he.
 Tor 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,o00.0o0 acres, has def inite agricultural possibilities. but irrigation and other more or less ex- pensive requirements will considera- ply prejudice the profits to be ob- tained from farming. The country is sparsely settled, and much of the
 turies. At the present time the esti-
 mated area under cultivation in all Palestine amounts to fewer than a million acres."
 O o O
 Rocky and Barren Lands.
 American business men who recent ly visited Palestine have found con firmation of MT. Southard's observa- tions 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 85 per cent of the population. have difficult time eking out an existence. It can hardly be expected therefore, these American 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- l lively small. Of the 100000 popula- tion of Palestine, only II per cent Is Jewish. Those particular callings for which Hebrews throughout all times have shown an especial predilection- clothing manufacture, merchandising, banking and money changing-are singularly lacking in the Holy Land.
 Industrial activity is almost ncgligi- ble. Fruit growing and souvenir
 making are the principal pursuits.
 Jews Open stores.
 Most of the Jews who have left America for what they believed to be "the promised land" have found life | ha Palestine difficult and expensive.
 Many of them have engaged in small farming and fruit culture. Others have set up small retail stores in Jaffa, Heifa and other large towns. The main streets of Jerusalem and Jaffra now resemble busy retail cen ters in the East Side of New York. The Hebrew and English languages vie with Arabic as the prevailing tongues in the commercial marts. Palestine" says Consul Southard in his report, lis a small country without demonstrated natural re- sources of any particular importance. It's population is small and will not
 for some years possess any consider able purchasing power. Within it's
 own limits it will produce or consume little as compared with the average
 world political or commercial unit. The consul's statement that the local population neither produce nor consume much explains why the world Jew has such reluctance In colonizing the Holy Land. The Arab
 population is proverbially poor and produces little beyond a few staples of the farm and vineyard The Jew who is essentially merchant anG i trader, finds it impossible to live off possible to exploit his own people. | American visitors usually leave | Palestine with the conviction that if I it were not for it's historical and 1 Biblical associations and traditions the Holy Land would figure little in
 the worlds life. There is a firm be- lief among disinterested Americans
 that Great Britain owould willingly withdraw from it's Costly occupation of the country if 1t were not for the security of the Suez canal, which Is
 only 200 miles away