British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume II - Page 943

CHAPTER XXII.

Estimates) of revenue and expenditure will be compiled for the said quarters, where it will be preferable to spend the revenues from the said quarters on the same quarters after deduction of a proportionate administration, contingencies and public schemes expenditure.

!J. The Committee of the said quarters will submit in December of each year their proposals on the subject of development schemes in the said quarters for consideration by the Municipal Commission."

This agreement disposed of the vexed question of arrears of rates owed to the Jaffa Municipality which had considerably accumulated during the previous years of the dispute. The agreement was approved by Government and a special enactment was made to amend the Municipal Corporations Ordinance, 1934, in order to give effect to the recommendation that these rates should be written off.

151. The hope that the agreement of 1940 would dispose of the dispute and enable both Arabs and Jews to work side by side, as in Jerusalem and Haifa, was finally dissipated (after intermittent arguments from both sides) by further representations from the Municipality of Tel Aviv. In May 1944, Mr. Rokach informed the Chief Secretary that "the Florentin and Shapiro quarters had been built up on waste land as a logical and natural continuation of Tel Aviv". Mr. Rokach claimed that they were homogeneous, "racially, nationally and economically" and that they belonged to Tel Aviv, which provided all municipal services "including health, hospitalization, water, education and special welfare services". Mr. Hokach stated that these services were costing Tel Aviv £1'.50,000 a year and that this expenditure was increasing. Contributions from Jaffa had been increased to £P.10,000, plus £P.11,000 for social welfare, and, although welcome, were inadequate. (In fact, scavenging, lighting and sewage are supplied by Jaffa. Out of the water supplied by Tel Aviv, the Tel Aviv Municipality made a profit of £P.2,500 a year. An education rate, imposed by Jaffa on the Jewish quarters, is paid by Jaffa Municipality to Tel Aviv. Moreover, over 50% of the land is still Arab owned).

152. Although it was noted that the Tel Aviv Municipality could, if necessary, impose a special charge on Jews living outside the municipal boundaries but availing themselves of various services provided by Tel Aviv, and thus recoup itself to some extent for its expenditure, in 1945 Government decided to make a special grant

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