Colonial Development Fund in Palestine before 1948 (Nakba), British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume II - Page 551. Chapter XIV: Finance: Section 3

CHAPTER XIV.

28. As mentioned in section B of chapter IV, Palestine is eligible as a mandated territory for the grant of assistance from moneys made available by His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom for colonial development and welfare purposes. Under the Colonial Development Act, 1929, provision not exceeding £P.l,000,000 was voted annually by Parliament in the form of a grant-in-aid to the Development Fund, Allocations from the Fund were made by the Secretary of State, after considering the advice of the Colonial Development Advisory Committee, to colonies, protectorates and mandated territories in furtherance of schemes likely to aid and develop agriculture and industry. Application for assistance from the Fund was made by the Government of the territory desirous of assistance.

29. Assistance from the Fund took the form of grants or loans made direct for any approved purpose fulfilling the intentions of the Act, or grants or loans made to assist a Government to defray the interest payable during the first ten years of any loan raised by that Government for such a purpose. Schemes submitted for consideration had clearly to be economically sound but at the same time they must not be so obviously remunerative as to make it appropriate that they could and should be undertaken by private enterprise. Moreover, it was necessary to establish that schemes submitted were not of such a nature as to make it fitting that the Government concerned should undertake them on the strength of its own resources.

30. Between 1929 and 1940 (when the Colonial Development and Welfare Act was passed-see below), eight grants from the Fund were made to Palestine. The schemes were :

(i) Survey of projected railway route, Haifa Baghdad: free capital grant

(ii) Investigation of fruit-canning ' methods: free capital grant

(iii) Hebron water supply: free grant of interest
(iv) Underground water investigations .and water resources survey in relation to village supplies: free grant of interest
(v) Jerusalem water supply: free capital grant (vi) Jerusalem drainage: free capital grant
(vii) Colonial agricultural scholarship scheme: free capital grant
(viii) Colonial forestry scholarship scheme: free capital grant
Total received

551