NEEDS OF PALESTINE
Under the above headline the Daily Consular and Trade Reports for October 22 published the following article: "Samuel Hurwicz, exporting and importing agent at Jaffa, Palestine, writes. to the Manufacturers' Board as follows: There are most likely in the United States some pushing people who can give the Arabs lessons in the arts of the Americans, and who will find in a resurrected Turkey a new outlet market for their products. Since the constitution was proclaimed new longings and new business projects are cropping out on every hand.
"The new minister of commerce, Gabriel Efferadi Novadoung, has called upon specialists and scientists for advice as to the construction of roads and the equipment of artificial irrigation stations.
"The city of Jerusalem, which up to this time, with its 120,000 inhabitants, has gotten along without proper water supply, now seeks a company to supply it regularly with water upon a practical plan. Local groups are now forming, which are ready to aid in such a laudable enterprise with money and influence.
"Jaffa is visited every summer by from 4,000 to 5,000 people in search of health, since the inhabitants of the country roundabout hold sea baths in high esteem. Year by year the number of these guests increases, but there is not a bath house. A local merchant, M. Schoenberg, intends, with the aid of German capital, to lay out a street and build a hotel for the watercure visitors, with promenades, etc., shortly.
“Jaffa has 300 orange gardens, embracing 1,500 hectares (about 3,700 acres), and with its 50,000 inhabitants necessarily needs large quantities of water. The Odge river is only about 7 kilometers (kilometer=
0.62 mile) from the city, and ample enough to supply the town and the outlying settlements with all the water needed for usual purposes, as well as for power and electricity. The Germans have, therefore, again put in their petitions for water concessions for electric lighting and power, as well as for canalization. They also wish to build railways.
"From 12 to 14 kilometers distant fromJaffa is a rich Jewish colony, "Petach Tikwah" (Door of Hope). These people suffer from miserable transportation and roadaccommodations; more than 100 personstravel to and fro from Jaffa, and from 10to 12 tons of freight are carried the samedistance daily, not to mention, in season,8,000 to 10,000 hectoliters (hectoliter=26½gallons) of grapes and wine every two orthree months, and 60,000 to 100,000 casesof oranges, almonds, grain, etc., not readilyestimated, during the same period of time.There are at this place 400 to 500 orangegardens irrigated by from 50 to 60 motorsof 5 to 17 horsepower each. The community is very much dissatisfied with such asystem, and some of the more progressivecitizens desire a general irrigation plant,as well as suitable field and freight tramways (railways)."
The Collegiate Zionist League
The following partial list of lectures to be delivered under the auspices of the Collegiate Zionist League, at Earl Hall, Columbia University, has been named:
March 13, Dr. J. L. Magnes, "What Zionism means to me."
April 3, Prof. I. Friedlaender, Professor at the Jewish Theological Seminary, will lecture on "Universalism and Nationalism."