British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume II - Page 976

CHAPTER XXV.

for further extensions, Government agreed to an arrangement whereby the Company would operate the baths for a period of five years under an agreement made on 1st January, 1932, between the Municipality of Tiberias and the Company. (The ownership of the greater part of the baths was claimed by Government but the claim was disputed by the Municipality and also, in part, by the Supreme Moslem Council. Agreements providing for payment of shares in the revenue from the property to those two authorities were made in 1929 between them and Government). Upon the expiration of the agreement between the Company and the Municipality an agreement was made, with the consent of the Municipality, between the Company and the High Commissioner on 4th October, 1937, under which the springs were leased to the Company for a period of sixty years, the Company undertaking to spend a sum of not less than £40 ,000 upon the construction and equipment of the bath establishment, including administrative offices and gardens. The terms of this lease have been the subject of considerable further negotiation and discussion between the Company, the Municipality and Government; owing to the lack of building materials during the war certain relaxations have been granted to the Company in regard to the length of the construction period and rentals paid and charges made by the Company.

13. The El Hamma Mineral Springs Concession. A concession was granted by the High Commissioner on 30th December, ln30, to Suleiman Bey Nassif for the development of the hot springs at El Hamma in the Yarmuk gorge. Under the original agreement an area of 200 dunums, containing three main springs, was leased for a period of 31 years, for the purpose of the establishment of thermal baths and a hotel. The authorized capital under the agreement was £P.6,000. Under a subsequent agreement dated 9th April, 1937, the lease was assigned to the Hamma Mineral Springs Ltd., of which Suleiman Bey Nassif is the managing director, and was extended to 45 years; the authorized capital was raised to £P.40,000. The Company has recently been negotiating with Government for a further extension of the period of the lease to 99 years from 1930 and the elevation of the authorized capital to £P.200,000 so that the property •may be developed into an upto-date spa.

14. The Bonded Warel1011ses Concession. On 23rd February, 1922, an agreement was made between the Palestine Government and the General Manager of the Egyptian Bonded Warehouses Company Ltd., in his capacity as trustee of a Company to be incorporated and known as the Levant Bonded Warehouses Co.

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