Office of the Historian

867N.55/179

Memorandum by Mr. J. Rives Childs of the Division of Near Eastern Affairs

[Washington,] June 3, 1939.

Statistics of Arab immigration into Palestine are only available since 1935 as it was only in that year that the three categories of “Jews, Arabs and others” were substituted for “Jews, Christians and Moslems.” If the categories “Christians” and “Moslems” as they appeared before 1935 are lumped together they will at least afford a picture of the maximum limits of Arab immigration.

The following table accordingly shows the recorded immigration of Jews and non-Jews from 1921 to 1934, inclusive:

Year Recorded Immigration
Jews Non-Jews
1921 (September –October) 9,149 190
1922 “ “ 7,844 284
1923 “ “ 7,421 570
1924 “ “ 12,856 697
1925 “ “ 33,801 840
1926 “ “ 13,081 829
1927 “ “ 2,713 882
1928 “ “ 2,178 908
1929 “ “ 5,249 1,317
1930 “ “ 4,944 1,489
1931 “ “ 4,075 1,458
1932 “ “ 9,553 1,736
1933 “ “ 30,327 1,650
1934 “ “ 42,359 1,784

The following shows the recorded immigration of Jews and Arabs from 1935 to 1937, inclusive:

Jews Arabs
1935 61,854 903
1936 29,727 675
1937 10,536 743

[Page 773]

In a report from the Consul General in Jerusalem dated January 10, 1939,89 it was observed that since 1920 the Jewish population of Palestine has increased sixfold, almost entirely through immigration, and that the Arab population has increased by some 57 percent, almost entirely through natural increase. The report notes also that, in the case of the Arabs, immigration and emigration have roughly balanced since the War, but the natural increase of the Arab population has been one of the highest, if not the highest, in the world.

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