British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume II - Page 860

CHAPTER XX.

1938 on grounds of public security in order to provide communication to areas hitherto inaccessible to wheeled traffic and in order generally to facilitate the movement of troops and police. This programme was completed in 1940. and U " total length of roads built thereunder was about 840 kilometres.

(c) A programme of road construction commenced in 1940 on behalf of the military authorities in order to deal with the great increase in the .volume of military' traffic following the outbreak of the war. The total length of new roads constructed under this programme is about 370 kilometres; in addition certain roads were widened and their surfaces improved.

Expenditure on roads.

30. In order to arrive at the capital value of the system of main roads in Palestine it is necessary to consider

(a) the value of roads existing at the time of the British Occupation in 1917,

(b) the value of roads constructed by the military authorities during and after the Occupation,

(c) the expenditure on road construction by the Palestine Government from the inception of the civil administration to the present time on

l. roads built for the normal development of the country, vid e (a) of paragraph 29, and

2. roads built for security purposes, vide (b) of paragraph 29, and

(d) the expenditure on road construction on behalf of the military authorities, vide (c) of paragraph 29.

(a) The value of roads existing at the time of the British Occl!pation.

While relatively accurate figures are available for (b) to !d), any estimated value of roads built by the Turkish Government and the Turkish troops must of necessity be very approximate only. Taking the length and state of these roads as described in paragraph 21 above, the pre-war cost of labour, etc. the figure of say £P. 50 ,000 might be taken as an arbitrary estimate of the value of the road system existing when military operations began. (b) The value of roads constructed by the British 1nilitary

authorities during and after the Occupation.

The military authorities continued, up to the end of March, 1922, to give financial assistance, on a repayment arrangement for the construction of roads. General Wickham who was sent out by the War Office at the beginning of 1922 to value "the

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