Evening star., 1933-03-25

TINE BULLETIN. Sydney. New
South Wales.-To the Editor:
The relief workers here are
L mostly engaged in improving
roads. Certainly the roads can
do with improvement. but we could
manage with them as they are, and
the country is too poor at the moment
to 60 in for work that shows no return.
The man on the land pays relief tax
and does not consider that there Is any
thing to show for it. 1t could be done
better this way. If man increases his
wage bill, he should get a rebate tax
say to the extent Of one-fourth of the
extra wages. The man on the land
hates paying out dead money: and II
some scheme like this were initiated he
would rush it. 1t would mean that far
more real relief work would be available
return on the cost of it,
SYLVESTER.
\ \
Results in Palestine
Development Defended.
The New Judea. London.-It is not
little astonishing that after all
that has been written and published
about Palestine journalist of such re-
pute as G. Ward Price should be-
tray such profound ignorance of the
country as was shown by him in his re-
cent article in the Sunday Pictorial
The case of Mr.. Price is all the more
inexplicable because he wrote his article
in Jerusalem, where he could have
gotten all the facts he wanted. but ap-
parently he could not see the truth
even when it stared him in the face. He
has simply reproduced legends which
were given considerable publicity some
years ago by section of the press hos
tile to British policy in Palestine. and
which we believed had been thoroughly
exploded.
He complains that England cannot
afford to run home for Jews" as
though England were doing or had ever
done so. 1t can not be emphasized too
often or too strongly that the British
government has not contributed and
does not contribute single penny to
the establishment of the Jewish Ma
tional Home. On the contrary, the en-
tire cost is borne by the Jewish people
themselves, through the support volun-
tarily given by the Keren Hayesod, the
Jewish National Fund, and other Zionist
funds and institutions.
Nor does the British government pay
anything for the maintenance of the
Palestine administration. The budget OF
the Palestine government, amounting to
about f2,500,000, is betrayed entirely by
the public revenue of the country, 40
per cent Of which is provided by the
Jewish settlers, although they form only
20 per cent Of the population Of the
country. The only expenditure Of the
British exchequer IS on account of the
military and air force units, but the
excess of their cost in Palestine over
what the cost would be in England is
covered by the Palestine government,
with the exception of the relatively
small sum Of 1000.
Ward Price seems to imagine that
since the beginning of the British
regime only 10000 Jews have entered
Palestine. that they are all remittance
men" and that the number of Jews
who have settled In the country since
the war is about twice the figure that
he gives, for the Jewish population at
the end Of 1918 was only $1,000 and It
Is now nearly 10000. The Jewish
settlers, so far from being remittance
men," are diligent workers in both in
dustry and agriculture, and have added
considerably to the wealth Of the
country.
It is absurd for Mr.. Price to speak
Of lone or two small industries estab-