not discouraged, but I am pointing out that this is not a press-thebutton job, on this particular point of land ownership and land utilization.

Now, what could happen if this entire valley were irrigated? One can get a variety of estimates as to the number of additional people who might find homes and a living in this area. At the present time as many as 50,000 people make their living in this very fertile and handsome area in the north. And I might point out that the Israeli area, on the other side of the Beisan Plain, is also a very handsome area from the point of view of the agriculturist.

This is perhaps the best land of all.

This general area is the fairest land in the Kingdom of Jordan. In the spring it is a sight for sore eyes. It is beautifully cultivated and fertile. There is only one crop a year now, a good deal of fallow, and dependence on this very tricky rainfall, and dependence on the flow of the wadis, the floodwaters of which are not controlled.

The lowest estimate of additional settlers who could find homes and opportunities in the valley is about 100,000. The highest is 300,000. We do know there are 150,000 acres that might be put under perennial irrigation. We do know that there are 65,000 acres which are now cultivated. There is a vast area down here which is not presently cultivated or only sparsely cultivated, upon which there are grazing rights. Again an adjustment would have to be made in connection with those grazing rights.

Mrs. BOLTON. Mr. Gardiner, how does this whole thing relate to the Lowdermilk plan?

Mr. GARDINER. It would probably conflict with the Lowdermilk plan. I think that is all I need say on the subject of the benefits.

I think we would be justified by the fact that a great many services follow the actual farming family, to hope that you would get 150,000 to 200,000 refugees. Perhaps a few less refugees, but 200,000 people in all.

I think you have to consider the needs of the nonrefugee population in Jordan in this difficult context, in this area.

There are several different ways in which this result might be brought about. Common to all of them are intensive studies of further sources of water from wells in the region, from which one cannot look for any great things. Common to all of them is the volume of the floodwaters of these wadis including the Zerka, the Ziglag, the Arab, the Far'a, and another which is now being closely examined, the Wadi Duhleil.

In Jordan, there is great interest in the possibilities of the construction of a dam at a point on the Yarmuk Řiver.

The Yarmuk rises in Syria and partly in Jordan and it flows into the Jordan about 4 miles south of Lake Tiberias. Three of its tributary wadis converge at a most spectacular point. There is a gorge there that is 1,600 feet across and 800 feet deep and extends for 2 or 3 miles. It is a stunning bit of country. There the Yarmuk waters are completely under the control of Jordan and Syria. The river and the railroad form the boundary between Jordan and Syria. One might elect a storage dam which would serve two purposes: one, the control of most of the floodwater for purposes of irrigation in the valley, and secondly at that point, through building a high dam, which

might be as high as 420 feet, one would obtain a substantial additional head of water for power.

Now, that proposal is being examined on the spot by engineers attached to the Government of Jordan, financed by point 4 funds, by UNRWA funds and by British loan funds. We think we have there for that purpose one of the best hydraulic engineering firms in the United States, the firm of Harza of Chicago. They have had experience in India and Iraq and they are very well known in their profession. With Harza, we are in the best possible hands.

The flow of the Yarmuk River might then be controlled in this reservoir and led through a power station at the dam site, a further power station at the escarpment, the place where the plateau falls off very sharply into the valley.

There might be as much as 50,000 kilowatts of installed power, and there would be enough water to be led in a canal which would follow the contours of the east bank of the Jordan River, and with various feeder canals, would serve to irrigate substantially all of the land on the east bank of the Jordan River.

(Discussion off the record.)

Mr. GARDINER. How does this tie in with the plans of the Israelis to control the water?

I think I should explain that as a result of the U. N. partition plan and subsequent action, the Israelis now claim the waters at the mouth of the Yarmuk, as they claim physical control of all the waters flowing into Lake Tiberias from the north.

There is another element in this complex and that is that Lebanon and Syria control, in their turn, the upper sources of the Jordan River, but the Israelis can divert and deflect into Israel a very substantial portion-substantially all the water-that feeds Lake Tiberias from the north, and with that water, which would have to be led to the plains in Israel by a canal, they would hope to cultivate perhaps as many as 150,000 or more acres perennially.

The flow of water into Lake Tiberias is approximately 800 million cubic meters per annum, and in Tiberias itself, there evaporates about 300 million cubic meters of water per annum.

A suggestion was made about a year ago from a source close to the Israeli Government that the proper way to handle this situation was to divert all the waters flowing into Lake Tiberias to the south in Israel, and to replenish the waters of Lake Tiberias by diverting the Yarmuk River into the Sea of Galilee, or Lake Tiberias.

The Yarmuk flow is approximately 480 million cubic meters per year and it would be convenient to divert the Yarmuk into Lake Tiberias because then the natural evaporation would be provided for and there would be some water left over for the Arabs and the Beisan Plain. That plan would, of course, do complete violence to the Yarmuk project.

I do not like to encumber this record but I would suggest for the consideration of the committee, Mr. Chairman, that there be filed at this time a statement in the current number of the Middle East Journal, a calm and dispassionate statement of possible and wise approaches to the problem of the disputed waters of the Jordan.

Chairman CHIPERFIELD. Mr. Gardiner, will you furnish that for the record?

33064-53--65

Mr. GARDINER. I will be glad to do so, sir. I think that there you have an authoritative man talking who has studied the situation on the spot and who is concerned not only with the engineering and political problems here, but with the moral issues involved.

(The article referred to is as follows:)

THE DISPUTED WATERS OF JORDAN

(By M. G. Ionides, A. M. I. C. F., formerly Director of Development in the Government of Transjordan, 1937-39)

From the end of World War I till 1948, Palestine and Transjordan, being part of the former Turkish Empire, were governed under League of Nations mandate, the responsible power being Great Britain. The mandatory power's responsibilities were exercised through a British High Commissioner over both Palestine and Transjordan. The clauses in the League of Nations mandate relating to the Jewish national home applied to Palestine alone; Transjordan-i. e., that part of the mandated territory which lay to the east of the River Jordan-was excluded from this provision and remained a purely Arab country, which attained full independence in 1946. When the mandate was relinquished in 1948 and the State of Israel was established, the Arab Kingdom of Jordan was proclaimed by King Abdullah Ibn Hussein, covering the territory formerly known as Transjordan together with certain territories west of the Jordan (including the old city of Jerusalem) which were part of Palestine.