Page:A Jewish State 1917.djvu/30

 The Jewish Company will first of all see to the realization of all vested interests left by departing Jews. The method adopted will prevent the occurrence of crises, secure every man's property, and facilitate that inner migration of Christian citizens which has already been indicated.

NON-TRANSFERABLE GOODS.

The non-transferable goods which come under consideration are house property, land, and local business connections. The Jewish Company will at first take upon itself no more than the necessary negotiations for effecting the sale of these goods. These Jewish sales will not immediately produce any serious fall in prices. The Company's branch establishments in various towns will become the central offices for the sale of Jewish estates, and will charge only so much commission on transactions as will insure their financial stability.

Now, the development of this movement may cause a considerable fall in the prices of landed property, and may eventually make it impossible to find a market for it. At this juncture the Company will enter upon another branch of its functions. It will take over the management of abandoned estates till such time as it can dispose of them to greatest advantage. It will rent houses, let out land on lease, and instal business managers—these, on account of the required supervision, being, if possible, tenants also. The Company will endeavor everywhere to facilitate the acquisition of land by its tenants, who are Christians. It will, indeed, gradually replace its own officials in the European branches by Christian substitutes; lawyers, etc.; and these are not by any means to become servants of the Jews; they are intended to be free controlling bodies to the Christian population, so that everything may be carried through in equity, fairness and justice, and without imperilling the internal welfare of the people.

At the same time the Company will buy estates, or, rather, exchange them. For a house it will offer a house in the new country, and for land, land in the new country; everything being, if possible, transferred to new soil in the same state as it was in the old. And this transfer will be a great and recognized source of profit to the Company. "Over there" the houses offered in exchange will be newer, more beautiful, and more comfortably fitted, and the landed estates of greater value than those abandoned; but they will cost the company comparatively little, because it will have bought the ground at a very cheap rate.

PURCHASE OF LAND.

The land which the Society of Jews will have secured by international law must, of course, be privately acquired.

Provisions made by individuals for their own settlement do not come within the province of this general account. But the Company requires large strips of territory for its own needs and ours, and these it must secure by private purchase. It will negotiate principally for the acquisition of fiscal domains, with the great object of taking possession of this land "over there" without paying a price too high, in the same way as it sells here without accepting one too low. A forcing of prices will be impossible, because the value of the land will be created by the Company through its organization of settlements, in conjunction with the supervising Society of Jews. The latter will see to it that the enterprise does not become a Panama, but a Suez.

The Company will sell building sites at cheap rates to its officials,