Evening star., 1934-01-14
.TERT1SAY,EM T


preme irony of England's policy In
Palestine is that it must spend a good
part Of its energies in trying to undo
its own work.
British support Of Zionism has so
jeopardized the situation of the Arabs
that the government is now engaged in
trying to restore the balance between
destroyed. Since the British efforts are
very modest, however, and since the
Arabs have no faith in them and the
Zionists insist on at least an equal
share In all government benefits their
success is extremely problematical.
So many Arabs were forced of their
farms by Jewish land purchases that
the government has felt obliged to set
up elaborate machinery for tracing
these Arabs and resettling them on
other land and to prevent eviction of
any more tenant farmers by future
land sales.
Faced Literal Extinction.
The superior capital resources of
Jewish farmers were enabling them to
resist crop failures and other dificul-
ties SO much better than the Arabs
could that the Arab farmers are faced
with almost literal extinction so that
the government Is now trying to help
the Arabs with seed and other loans
and by remission of tithes.
Jewish co-operatives placed the un-
organized Arabs at such q disadvantage
IN cultivating, buying and shipping and
selling their produce that the govern
ment has begun to help the Arabs or
gan1ze their own co-operatives.
Scientific farming methods. brought
into the country by the powerful Zion
ist organization for the benefit of
Jewish settlers, are being taught by the
government In more modest measure
to the Arabs
The register Of landless Arabs" was
set up after expert British investiga-
tors reported that large numbers of
Arabs were being forced OF their farms
by Jewish land purchases and that
these Arabs were danger to law and
order and faced ultimate starvation
The register was designed to identify
these Arabs with q view to settling
them on other land.
Arabs Solve Own Problem.
This program failed. The Arabs
themselves solved the problem.
Eight hundred twenty-one families,
or about $500 persons. were finally
registered as having lost their lands
and found no other means Of making
q livelihood as a result of Jewish land
purchases. The government then Of
fered to sell some Of these families
new lands to cultivate. The Arabs re-
fused the land offered.
This stalemate has only just been
broken by the Arab Youth Confer
ence Executive, which bought land near
that which the farmers had lost and
offered 1t to them The farmers have
now accepted it.
The governments resettlement pro-
gram met with bitter criticism from
both Arabs and Jews.
Jews protested against the use of
public funds, raised by taxation of
themselves. as well as Of the Arabs,
to help only Arabs. The government
had no responsibility, Jews maintained,
toward tenants who had no rights to
the land they cultivated and who In
many cases had actually received money
cate. The Arabs could find other work
to support themselves, the Jews said.
Arabs claimed that the land offered
the landless farmers was so different
from that which they had left that
they could not cultivate 1t, that it
was malarious, that Il was near the
TRANSPORTATION frontier and thus be-
trayed q government intention grad
ually to force the Arabs out Of the
country, and that the land was to be
administered by q Jew.
The conditions under which Arabs
were accepted for registration were 80
ridiculous that only q small proportion
Of those entitled to help were even Of
fered It, according to Arabs.
RENTS S967, 80 IN Tlthes.
The government has remitted $751;
500 Of the u. .225. 900 due In tithes from
farmers this year. Omcials point to
this - IN important Aid to the Arabs.
Arabs retort that the 1.-THE could not
have been collected this year in any
event because Of the destitution Of the
farmers, that the tithe is unfairly as
seSsed and amounts to far more than
the one-tenth 1t Is supposed to be, and
That the government has gained more
by duties on foodstuns imported to sup
ply the deficiency caused BY crop fall
ures than 1t lost In the tithes.
Under the Turkish system tax col
lectors actually measured and took one
tenth Of the crops each year. The Brit
tsh, however, found this system cumber-
some and expensive, 70 they estimated
the average tiths which farmers had