An Attractive Album with 28 Original Photographs Concerning the Building of a Culvert in Wadi Umghat and a Bridge at Wadi Sirrah.

[British Mandate of Palestine]: N.p., 1938 & 1939. Original photograph album bearing 28 silver gelatin (though many appear to be albumen) photographs. The string-tied light brown album measures 10 x 7 inches and with the photograph measuring 6 5/8 x 4 1/2 inches. the photographs are mounted back to back on 14 leaves and each photograph is captioned and dated in pencil and all photographs have tissue guards. Three of the photographs with some foxing but all have very good contrast. A very tidy and very professionally accomplished album.Tis is likely a report that was meant to be sent back to Great Britain to show the accomplishments of the Public Works Department in the British Protectorate of Palestine. The very first photograph is dated 1938 and shows the "Base Office, Haifa." The next is a picture of the military staff (this one dated 1939) and the third the office staff (dated 1938). The remainder of the album details the work done by Arab crews in road repairs; the culvert in Wadi Umghat and the bridge at Wadi Sirrah. All aspects of work are shown-elevator graders, bitumen layers, masons, pre-mix surfacing, etc. The presumably paid Arab laborers were under the protection of the Arab Legion and the Legion also also served as the Paymaster's body guards. There is one fine photograph showing 4 heavily armed Arabs next to a pick-up truck and captioned "Paymaster's Escort of Arab Legion." The Arab Legion, under the command of Captain Frederick G. Peake, served initially as a force for British colonial rule in Transjordan. Just as importantly, the Arab Legion also served as the protectors of the regime of King Abdullah I ibn Hussein, and even played a central role in constructing Jordanian national identity itself, including tieing that sense of identity and nationhood to loyalty to the Hashimite monarchy. Like the modern Jordanian army, the Arab Legion was widely viewed as the best-trained and best-equipped army in the Arab world. 1938 & 1939 were perilous times in that area. During the mandate era, two different social systems developed under one political framework, a Jewish one and an Arab one. Each society had its own welfare, educational, and cultural institutions and they gradually became politically and economically independent of one another.The Zionist movement, for its part, operated along two main axes: the acquisition of land and immigration. Private capital and Zionist institutions purchased large-scale tracts of land, including from Arab landowners. Jewish immigration and the natural growth of the Arab population in Palestine dramatically transformed the demography of Mandatory Palestine as it grew from approximately 700,000 inhabitants in 1922 to around 1,800,000 in 1945. The Arab population doubled, while the Jewish population grew tenfold. There were numerous violent hostilities between these groups from the 1920s onward. The defining moment was in 1929 when what is now called the Wailing Wall Riots occurred. After that 1929 conflict, Arabs no longer distinguished between Jews of Arab origin and Jews of Eastern European origin, but instead viewed them as one group with the same national aspirations. As far as the Jews were concerned, the events led to the conclusion that a separate Jewish state was needed and political groups should work together to accomplish this objective. 1936 was a particularly violent year that was precipitated by the increase of Jewish immigrants due to the threat of Nazi Germany. This revolt had two phases. The first started on April 1936 with a general strike by the Arab community and violent attacks on British and Jewish targets. It lasted until October 1936, when diplomatic efforts involving other Arab countries led to a ceasefire. Eventually, in 1939 this led England to issue its famous White Paper stating that each group should have its own country within the region. And the world has been working on that ever since.