British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Supplement - Page 113

on the Port itself and on portions of the town of Haifa, the effect in the latter case being almost as drastic as a complete cessation of work in the Port owing to the inability of the public to present themselves at the Port to do business and to remove their imported goods. At no time has any racial strife shown itself. within the Port where Arabs and Jews work amicably shoulder to shoulder

together with British supervisory staff. -

During the war, Jaffa Port was closed to deep water shipping and has only recently resumed its normal trade.

The effect of the unstable political conditions during the past year was to divert considerable quantities of Jewish cargo from the Tel Aviv Lighter Harbour to Jaffa Port, Southern Section, due to the slowing down or complete stoppage of work at Tel Aviv, as a result of curfews and/or Martial Law, This was particularly marked during the period in which the latter was imposed on Tel Aviv last March. Deliveries at Jaffa (South) during these periods were adversely affected, due to the inability of Jewish clearing agents to leave Tel Aviv.

A comparison of the tonnages handled since 1927 in Haifa, Jaffa and other ports together is shown in the following figures which distinguish general tonnage from petroleum tonnage :-

Year

Cargo I

discharged

tons

Cargo loaded

General I Oil

cargo

tons tons

1927 1939 1944 1945 rn46

219,379 929,231 1,530,021 660,065 996,850

73,840 545,384 206,998 373,387 502,093

1,811,916 2,384,645 2,995,818 2,683,220

(p. 858) (§ 20)

The ports are operated commercially as a department of the Palestine Government. They are at present self-supporting financially. The revenue and working expenditure for the years 1945/ 46 and 1946/47 were:-

Jaffa

Haifa Total


1945/46 I 1946/47 -

I 1945/46 I 1946/47 I 194.5t46 I 1946/47

I LP. LP. LP. LP. LP. LP.
Revenue 1609,133 1,090,207 65,841 197,246 674,974 1,287,453
Working expenditure * 335,167 668,912 57,726 120,998 392,893 789,910
__________________________----
(*) Excluding contributions to the renewals fund, debt charges and capital expenditure.

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