British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume II - Page 1018

CHAPTER XXVI.

textiles (based on 1943) according to the main groups of articles, expressed in percentages, is approximately as follows :-

(1) Woven fabrics 34.75%

(2) Knitted goods 32.45% •

(3) Ready-made clothing

(a) Children's clothing 6.17%

(b) Ladies' clothing 11.58%

(c) Men's clothing 15.05%

The Defence (Utility Goods) (Distribution of Textiles) Scheme 1944*, provided for the distribution, through the usual trade channels, of cheap imported piece-goods to the public. Sales by retailers to the public were supervised in the Arab sector by the District Administration, in the Jewish sector by the Controller.

92. Utility tailoring scheme. In 1944, the Defence (Utility Goods) (Tailoring) Scheme** was introduced to combat the soaring prices for men's suits. Stocks of English suitings and linings were exhausted and there was no local production of these materials. The first steps taken were to requisition or purchase all consignments of suitings or linings on arrival, and to issue import licences, within quota limits, exclusively to two companies, representing the leading Arab and Jewish importers, on the condition that their imports would be held at the disposal of the Controller. In view of the limited quantities available, monthly quotas of suits were fixed for the Arab and Jewish sectors of the population as follows:- Arabs - 1200, Jews - 2300; these quotas were based on an assessment of the percentage of the population in each sector wearing European-type clothing. Only persons over 18 ye11rs of age, residing in the five main towns of Palestine (namely Jerusalem, Jaffa, Tel Aviv, Haifa and Nablus), who had not ordered a suit to-measure since January 1st 1943 were eligible. Five different qualities of English cloth ranging in price from £P.l.375 mils, to £P.2. 750 mils per metre, and complete sets of linings from £P.l.200 mils to £P.2.200 mils per suit were made available. Tailoring charges, ranging from £P.4.150 mils to £P.8.500 mils, were also prescribed. During the period September, 1944, to 1st January, 1946, 40,065 suits were sold, (27,620 to the Jewish sector and 12,445 to the Arab sector). At the beginning of August, 1945, and again on the 1st November, 1945, The scheme was extended to include, in addition to the country's five main towns various other localities in the vicinity of Tel Aviv.

93. A Textile Advisory Committee, the members of which are drawn from all branches of the textile trade, acts in an advisory
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* Laws of 1944, Vol. II, page 78
** Laws of 1944, Vol. Ill, page 813.

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