British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume II - Page 977

CHAPTER XXV.

Ltd., granting to the latter Company, for a period of fifty years, a licence to carry on the business of bonded warehousemen in Palestine. Under this agreement the Government permitted the establishment by the Company of warehouses on lands within the customs zones at Haifa and Jaffa. The agreement did not constitute a monopoly, but the Government undertook not to permit any other person or concern to carry on the business of bonded warehousemen on terms more favourahle than those granted to the Company.

As a result of the findings of a board of arbitration in regard to a dispute between the Company and Government, section 76 of the Customs Ordinance was amended in 1937 so er to safeguard the rights of the Company in the matter of ou~ scale of warehouse licence fees payable by the Company under the terms of the agreement. The removal of the bonded warehouse at Haifa to a site outside the customs zone occasioned a new agreement of the 7th July, 1939, by which the Company was compensated for relinquishing the site within the customs zone. No change was made in the term of life of the original agreement.

15. The Lighthouse Concession. By an agreement dated 20th August, 1860, the Ottoman Government granted a concession to Messrs. Collas et Michel for the erection and maintenance of lighthouses on the coasts of the Ottoman Empire in the Mediterranean Sea and elsewhere. This concession was renewed from time to time with certain modifications and finally, by agreement made in April 1913, for a period terminating on 4th September, 1949. By the protocol signed at Lausanne on 24th July, 1923, these agreements were maintained and the Government of Palestine was subrogated as regards the rights and obligations of the Ottoman Government towards the concessionaires in so far as they related to the lighting of the coast of Palestine. So as to conform with the stipulations of the said protocol and with the object of effecting a consolidation of the previous agreements a new agreement was made on 6th December, 1930, between the High Commissioner and the Administration Generals des Phares de Palestine of Paris in whom the benefits of the previous agreements had meantime been vested. This agreement of 1930 confirmed the right of the concessionaires to administer the lighthouses which had been established by them until the expiration of the concession in 1949. The total number of lighthouses administered by the concessionaires is four, situated at Acre, Haifa, Mount Carmel and Jaffa, all of which were first established in 1864. The

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