ABSTRACT
Major-General Bols’s despatch of 19 June 1920 to the Foreign Secretary (see Figure 2.3, pp. 45-46) outlined the initial steps of the cadastral survey of Palestine. In the first stages of organisation of the Mandate institutions two views were expressed regarding surveys: one held that the survey organisation was to carry out the cadastral survey and to serve only the needs of land settlement and that its work would be ended with the completion of this project. Accordingly, the question arose whether to give the Survey Department permanent government office status.1 On the other hand, there were some in the Government of Palestine and in London who regarded the Survey Department from the beginning as an essential department with an ongoing purpose, like other departments of the government. Consequently, it would have to be built up from the bottom so as to carry out all the government’s functions connected with surveys, mapping, and map production.2 The Bols despatch dealt with seven subjects:
1 allocation of budgets for the first year of operation, 1920-1921; 2 organisation of the survey: recruiting personnel, determining the geographic extent of
the survey, the commencement of work,3 and the technical direction for the working methods;
3 training of manpower; 4 ensuring the assistance and professional backing of the Egyptian Survey Department; 5 instructions regarding the marking of surveyed areas; 6 implementation, in parallel, of land settlement and registration; 7 relating to the pace of work in the early stages.
