"كتيّب سوريا (بما في ذلك فلسطين). لندن: إدارة استخبارات الأركان البحرية، يونيو ١٩١٩" [ظ‎‎٢‎٥‎٠] (٧٣٨/٥٠٥)

494
SAMARIA (INCLUDING CARMEL)
and their proportions correspond in the main to those of other
ports of Syria ; but coal and briquettes form an exceptional
item, and, previous to the war, averaged 20,000-35,000 tons
annually, imported mainly for the Railway Administration.
Of the total trade of Haifa, export and import, about one-
third is carried on, normally, with France, one-fifth with the
United Kingdom, and one-eighth with Egypt. During the
period 1909-13 about 530 steam vessels dealing with an
annual aggregate of three-quarters of a million tons of goods
entered and cleared the port annually, of which 140 were
British, 115 Russian, 106 Austrian, 45 Turkish, 1 34 Italian, 1
and 28 French. During the same period, 670 sailing vessels
dealing with about 11,000 tons of cargo cleared annually.
Haifa is about two days distant by steamer from Port Said
and about six hours from Jaffa and Beirut.
A small local coasting trade is carried on at Tanturah,
‘Athlit, Qaisarlyeh, and Minet Abu Zabura, small coastal
villages south of Haifa. Of these, Tanturah, the most impor
tant, exports a quantity of wine ; as much as 1,000 barrels
have been shipped in one day in a steamer anchored off the
port, and a number of local sailing craft call here at the end
of summer. Considerable quantities of melons are shipped at
Minet Abu Zabura. Steamers occasionally call in summer at
Qaisariyeh, for melons, wheat, and barley from the plains of
Sharon.
The chief inland market centres of Samaria are Nablus,
Beisan, and Jenin. The first town and the most important of
the three was (1918) the terminus of a branch of the Tul
Keram-‘Afuleh railway. It is the meeting-place of several
trunk roads and carries on a considerable trade with the
country to the east of the Jordan. Beisan, situated as it is on
the Haifa-Der‘a railway, a centre of many good roads, and
lying midway between the most prosperous regions of Samaria
and Galilee on the one hand and Central ‘Ajlun on the other,
seems marked out as the main mercantile centre of the middle
1 The Italian and Turkish share in the shipping movement was below the
normal amount, as the Turko-Italian War fell in this period, 1909-13.