British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume II - Page 579

CHAPTER XIV.

accrues to Jewish tax payers but here again much of this income is obtained with the use of invested capital from abroad.

74. The difficulty of assessing relative benefits may best be shown by examining the main categories of Government expenditure in the year Hl44/45. They were as follows :-

I. Security

2. War services

3. General services, viz

a) Standing charges

b) General administration

c) Legal and Judiciary

d) Social services

e) Services relating to development /) Public works

o) Posts and telegraphs (extraordinary)

h) Grants to local authorities

i) Miscellaneous

Total

£P. 000 £P. 000

3,276 8,882 G,039

841 1,833 189 l,299 487 1,208 53 298 331

18, 197

75. Expenditure on security and general administration is incurred for the general welfare of the country and cannot be considered to benefit one section of the population more than another. It may, however, be claimed that the terms of the Mandate have been such that, to give effect to its provisions, a very substantial proportion of public expenditure is, and has been, unavoidable.

76. War services expenditure covers all those items such as subsidization, economic control measures, compensation for high cost of living etc. which were necessarily incurred by Government iu its administration of the country in the circumstances of war. The benefits of this expenditure consisted mainly in the avoidance of social injustice and of inequities resulting from shortage of supply and high prices. Such benefits cannot be apportioned on a basis of race or religion.

77. The social services expenditure consists of expenditure on health, education and social welfare. The details of this expenditure are discussed in other chapters and need not be further elaborated here. It may be mentioned nevertheless that while these services are undertaken for the benefit of the population as a whole the Jewish community finds it necessary to supplement them lo an extent that makes it obvious that the pace of development of the Government services is too short to meet the needs

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