Summary
John L. Fletcher (born 1898), a Palestine customs official who became the first controller of Light Industries, applying full control on each diamond from arrival to shipment, and sat on the Diamond Control Board (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.142, p.290-291).
Details
- Born in 1898, in 1939 he was one of the shapers of the customs agreement between Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.290-291).
- He served as an assistant director of customs in Palestine in “1946–1945” (as printed) at the department of light industries and as director of customs in 1946–1948; upon British withdrawal from Palestine he moved to serve in British Guiana (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.291).
- In June 1941 he ordered that “the industry shall be strictly controlled, not only in respect of supplies of raw material, but also in the disposal of finished products” (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.80).
- As Controller of Light Industries he signed the DCB Notice of 28 December 1943 permitting approved exporters other than manufacturers to export diamonds cut and polished in Palestine (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.307).
- With Salomon Horowitz and David Andreson he sat on the DCB inquiry subcommittee of March-May 1944 that reinstated Oved Ben-Ami while recommending a more democratic PDMA structure (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.158-159).