"كتيّب سوريا (بما في ذلك فلسطين). لندن: إدارة استخبارات الأركان البحرية، يونيو ١٩١٩" [ظ‎‎٩‎٧] (٧٣٨/١٩٩)

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INHABITANTS
of shops, or to railway stations. The Syrian, it is asserted,
is better at this business than any other race ; he is able to
carry a weight of eighty kilogrammes on his back. This
faculty is attributed in part to the primitive character of the
appliances in Syria, where work is done by human beings
which in more developed countries is accomplished with the
aid of cranes and the like. When the numbers of the immi
grants increased and there were as many as two or three
hundred in a place, the more talented opened shops, or even
factories, and organized labour, employing the others in
various capacities ; thus the Syrians for a time formed close
corporations. At a third stage they took to obtaining
possession of forests or agricultural lands, and cultivating
them like ordinary proprietors. Whereas then, in the two
former periods, the Syrian immigrants had been regarded as
birds of passage by the natives of Argentina, it was now
recognized that they meant to remain, and this was confirmed
by frequent intermarriage and the adoption by the Syrians
of the customs of the country.
This new departure was of value to the immigrants in two
ways. First it enabled the settlers to acquire wealth to
a degree which would not have been possible to them as
traders ; secondly it had the effect of uniting them more
closely to the land of their adoption ; though many still
made a point of retaining the customs of their native land
in their new conditions.
Probably the history of the Syrian colony in Argentina
does not differ seriously from that of the colonies in other
countries which are open to immigration on a large scale.
So a writer from the U.S. says ‘ in England and far more in
America the Syrian is a familiar figure ; we know him chiefly
as a factory hand or vendor of small needlework ’.
The degree of absorption of the emigrants in the country
to which they have gone is very variable ; in general the
number who return, especially to Lebanon, is very great.
In almost every village returned wanderers are found who
speak English. The large number of Arabic newspapers and