British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Supplement - Page 118

cash transactions to £P.12 million. The Post Office is banker for £P.1,490,000 of the peoples' savings. Statistics showing the growth of the Department's activities since 1924 are given below.

Personnel.

(p. 869)

(§ 53)

The total staff strength of the department as at 31st December, 1946, including classified and unclassified employees but excluding casual labour was 3,241, sub-divided as follows :-

I British Palestinian J Other Nationalities

First Second First Second First Second

Division I Division l Division I Division I Division I Division

' '

25

l,345 794

Jews Christians

16

913

58 54 19

Moslems

Future Development. (~ 54)

The public demand for Post Office services and telephones particularly, exceeds the capacity of the available plant and buildings. The use of the mail services has increased by 340 per cent. in the last 17 years, the telegraph service by 257 per cent. and the telephone service by 340 per cent. Plans for the expansion of these services, deferred during the war, are now matters of some urgency.

(§ 55)

Schemes are in hand for the completion of a new head pose office in Tel Aviv, work on which was suspended in 1938. It is also intended to erect a new post office at Haifa and to open new post offices and agencies in many villages and settlements.

A departmental Technical Training School for the training of engineering personnel was opened in 1943. Results have been very encouraging. The school is now attended by 26 Palestinian youths.

(§ 56)

Applications for over 15,000 telephone installations are on record and a total of 28,100 telephones are already in use. Several hundred applications for new Telephone installations in towns, villages and settlements throughout the country, including many in outlying rural areas, deferred during the war owing to shortage of equipment, are now being dealt with. The international telephone service extends to the United Kingdom, U.S.A., Eire, Egypt, France, Italy, Iraq, Lebanese Republic, Sudan, Syria and Trans-Jordan.

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