British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume II - Page 722

CHAPTER XVI.

197. In the report for 1921-25 to which reference is continually made in this note, Lord Samuel intimated :-

"Before the war, industries were almost non-existent in Palestine. A few factories, in the Arab town of Nablus and elsewhere, made soap from oil by simple processes".

The following table illustrates the growth of, and other variations in, the more important Arab industries whose establishments have to be registered with the Department of Health. The areas to which the table refers are the same as those covered by the immediately preceding table.

Table 25.

1921 1935 1939
Macaroni factories - 4
Oil mills and stores (other than mineral oils) 62 133 91
Edible oil processes, factories - 1 4
Preservation of meat or fish, factories 8 4
Patent food factories 1 3
Canned vegetable or fruit factories - 2
Establishments employing power-driven
machinery 7 818 541
Carpentry workshops and saw mills 185
Dye-works 46 82 91 ''
Pottery, brick and tile factories 18 47 29
Tanneries 84 19 2
Soap factories 41 14 80
Tobacco factories 4 3

198. Approximately 4,000 Arabs were employed in Arab factories and workshops in 1939. A census of industry taken in 1943 showed that 8 ,838 Arabs were so employed, of w horn more than fifty per cent were of the category, or higher categories, of "competent tradesmen requiring very little supervision".

The output of Arab and other non-Jewish enterprise (other than concessions) enumerated in the census of industry amounted to £P.l,545,000 gross in 1939 and to £P.5,658,000 gross in 1942. The corresponding net output figures were £P.313,000,in 1939 and £P.l,725,000 in 1942.

(g) RURAL ECONOMY.

199. In regard to the rural population, Lord Samuel wrote (op. cit.) :-

"Although nearly two-thirds of the population of Palestine are engaged in agriculture and allied occupations, the country districts are thinly peopled and, for the most part, poorly cultivated By far the greater part of the cultivable area remains in the hands of Arabs".
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* No record.

** Includes a. number of 'domestic' dyeing establishments.

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