HE JEWISH NEWS

Staff and Technical Shortages Hamper
Developement of Israel Cummunications

The

HUMAN •
0,0 SIDE

7

-

Friday, September 8, 1950

Moving into Their Future

over 25,000, about- five thousand
more are to be installed by the
end of the year, and the num-
ber of phones in the coastal
(Copyright, 1950, JTA, Inc.)
towns alone will almost triple
of the
TEL. AVIV—Postal services in within three years when build-
Israel are at present much in ings for new exchanges are
United
Jewish
Appeal
the limelight, being attacked completed.
and defended with equal vehe-
* * *
mence at short intervals. The
Meanwhile,
telephones are
"Special services" are a new
main facts are:
In spite of sabotage during frequently out of order due to wrinkle in fund-raising for the
United Jewish Appeal. This
th-e •evacuation and adminis- overwork at automatic exchang- project has been thought up
trative changes the service to- es whose wear is double the
day is on the average not worse normal rate for similar equip- and carried out by the girls at
and in some cases better than ment in Britain, and a public the Emanu-El Residence Club in,
under the mandate — which committee allocates telephones San Frandisco.
For a suitable fee, one girl at
means that it is not yet suited on a priority basis.
Radiotelephones are being in- the club will run errands or
to the requirements of a West-
troduced to outlying areas such crochet hats; one will provide
ern standard of living.
service in her car. Others
Staff, which consisted of 4,300 as Eilat and even Jerusalem and taxi
will cut hair, paint a portrait,
persons in the whole of Pales- already operate to 38 foreign give dancing lessons, prepare a
tine, now comprises only 2,700 countries as against nine lines home-cooked meal, or do typing.
and a few hundred extras for under the mandate which used All proceeds are turned over to
dealing with an already equal to use Cairo.
San Francisco Jewish Wel-
Capital investment in these the
volume of correspondence. Most
fare Fund, which raises money
spectacular
developments
of the present employees, were
in the Golden Gate City for the
recruited in a hurry under war amounts to seven million dol- United Jewish Appeal.
conditions from among men not lars in foreign currency and a
* * *
million and a half pounds in
eligible for the draft:
In Baton Rouge, a prize Brah-
local
money,
part
of
which
is
Allocations• for expensive cap-
man calf was auctioned off and
ital investment urgently needed being raised by _advances re- the entire proceeds were con-
for the present unprecedented quired from all new subscriber& tributed to the United Jewish
expansion are insufficient, and Another part comes from a gen- _Appeal.
This father and son resume farming after a - long lapse.
there are no reserves of suitable eral raising of phone rates for
- future as
Those
who
officiated
at
the
personnel. The postal authorit- `both use and installation..
Once -farmers in Hungary, they move into a brighter
Hebrew terms have already auction were W. E. Anderson, they turn the earth of Israel. In 1950, American Jewry's sup-
ies are not able to pay the in-
flated wages now paid for first- been approved for everything State Commissioner of Agricul- port of the United Jewish Appeal must makepossible ,entry
class labor, and there is an ex- connected with telephone tech- ture, and Quentin Reynolds,
newspaper correspondent. of 150,000 newcomers from Europe, North Africa and the
cessive turnover of immigrant niques and published _in an il- noted
The
calf brought $190 for the
workers who believe that they lustrated booklet of over 100
and several organizations. Moslem countries.
UJA
still have to find a more suit- pages.
able permanent occupation.
It is also not easy to eliminate
the dissatisfaction prevailing
among some of the, Jewish post-
al officials of mandatory times
who expected to inherit their
absent British superiors' posts,
but found themselves super-
seded by hardworking and de-
voted, but inexperienced, new
appointees.
** *
The technical departments,
which employ some 1,000 per-
sons inclusive of the broadcast-
ing stations, are universally re-
spected in this country with the
exception of the linemen who
consider themselves underpaid
and tend to dawdle over their
jobs. At a time when the armed
services, the merchant marine,
news agencies and foreign le-
gations compete for every avail-
able communications operator,
there are sufficient allocations
for training purposes. Former
postal employees arriving with
the waves of immigration from
India and Iraq proved of dis-
appointing quality.
Nevertheless, telecomm.unida-
—the man who knows the men and
tions with foreign countries
have been improved and ac-
events behind the news — talks every
claimed • the best in Asia by a
Monday* night over the ABC Network on
UPO publication appearing in
Geneva. Intermediary links
"Your Land and Mine."
through Cairo have of course
been eliminated. Concessions
to a British and American com-
E VERY Monday night — at 8:45 Eastern,
pany have been brought to an
Mountain and Pacific time (7:45 Cen-
end, so that the whole service is
now government-operated with
tral) — Henry J. Taylor talks straight from
spic-and-span new equipment
the shoulder to all America.
acquired through the American
Bank
Loan.
,
Export-Import
His words grow from a background sen-
There is now also a , wire
sitively tuned to our times. Henry J. Taylor
photo service to the U.S. and
knows the world well — has spent a lifetime
wireless connection with ships
at sea—a matter which was
traveling through key countries, talking to
,taken care of by the British
world leaders.
Navy before.
Outside office hours and on
And he's more than a noted author, traveler,
Sabbaths and holidays, how-
ever, it is almost impossible to
war correspondent. He is a businessman —
get a cable through any except
he knows the problems of the worker and of
the single telegraph office on
management. He talks clearly, crisply, fear-
duty in each large city.
Insufficient telephones have
lessly — at all times to the point.
been a major headache in this
country for over a decade, as
Get the Henry J. Taylor habit, every Mon-
development of the system
day night. You'll get a clear-cutpicture of
never caught up with the de-
our times on "Your Land and Mine."
mand. The end of the mandate
*In some localities, Mr. Taylor is heard on other days.
saw a waiting list equaling the
Consult your local paper for time and station.
number of subscribers, and at
present there are on the books
.
Presented by'
applications dating back to
1942.
NoW, however, Israel has re-
ceived some equipment ordered
Your Key to Greater Value
years ago and held up by the
British Foreign Office for pol-
itical reasons. Some more was
ordered from the U. S., Switz-
erland and other places. At the
..iEVROLET • PONTIAC • OLDSMOBILE • BUICK • CADILLAC • BODY BY FISHER • GMC TRUCK & COACH
termination of the mandate Is-
FRIGIDAIRE • GM DIESEL • DELCO .• UNITED MOTORS SERVICE • AC SPARK PLUGS
rael had 18,000 phones, partly
with lines cut; now there are

By ADA OREN
(Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Correspondent)

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