Summary
British colonial labour official appointed the government of Palestine’s first Labor Advisor in 1940 and later director of its Labor Department, who favoured independent Arab trade unions over the Histadrut’s Palestine Labor League (Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, lines 3347, 3489).
Details
- Graves, brother of the poet and novelist Robert Graves, began his career in the British-run security apparatus in Egypt; when a Labor Office was created within the Egyptian Ministry of the Interior in 1930 he was appointed to direct it, and he remained at its head until 1939, when Egyptianization of the upper levels of the government bureaucracy made his position untenable. He thus came to Palestine with considerable experience in colonial labor policy and administration (Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, line 3347).
- Appointed the government of Palestine’s first Labor Advisor in 1940, Graves recommended creating a full-fledged Labor Department; the recommendation was accepted in 1942 (Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, line 3347).
- As director of the Labor Department during the Wagner factory arbitration in Jaffa, Graves told the Histadrut’s Arab Department staff that “we want the organization of the Arab workers, but not by means of the Histadrut’s method”, the government favouring “independent Arab trade unions, not organizations run by an alien leadership” (Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, line 3489).
Related pages
Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, Labor Department, H. E. Chudleigh, Palestine Labor League, Histadrut