British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume I - Page 361

CHAPTER IX.

(c) Consumers' societies. (d) Miscellaneous societies.

In every type there are a few good societies, indicating that urban societies among Arabs can succeed where the members have a community of interest and identical needs. But the majority of the urban societies have shown signs of failure and the efforts of the department are directed towards their reorganisation or elimination.

127. On the Jewish side the table shows a steady general progress since 1933. It also shows how co-operative organisations are being applied to every new economic development in the country in preference to all other forms of organisation. This fact is especially exemplified by the numerous provident fund societies formed in the past two years. At the end of September, 1945, the Jewish societies had a. membership of 355,000 and possessed funds of approximately £P.10,000,000. The total capital employed in the operation of these societies was £P.33,000,000.

128. Among the improvements introduced in the Jewish societies during the second stage of co-operative development, beginning in 1933, the following deserve mention :-

(a) Standard model rules were drafted for the different types of societies and every Jewish society was prevailed upon to discard its old rules and adopt one of the models.

(b) Eight audit unions were formed and 694 societies out of a total of 1,209 societies are now affiliated with these unions for audit and control.

(c) Numerous amalgamations of societies were arranged in order to eliminate competition and overlapping.

(d) Numerous societies were induced to submit internal disputes for settlement by the Registrar (2,488 disputes were dealt with by the Registrar in the course of five years).

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