Palestine]
bulk of it is spun on the spot between July and November. Further north, about Antioch and Latakia, the cocoons are merely dried, either by the old method of steaming and exposure to the air, or in hot air chambers, and so exported. The spinning establishments are mostly small, employing from 30 to 100 persons, who sit at basins and guide the threads from the cocoons to the spindles; only a few factories belonging to Lyons firms are fitted up with modern plant. Possessing little capital, the native manufacturers are largely dependent upon advances made to them by French importers. The number of persons who were engaged in spinning before the war is estimated at 10,000-12,000, mostly Christian women or girls. Wages are low, the equivalent of about 30-90 centimes for a twelve-hour day, and half as much for children. The future of the silk industry is doubtful, especially if the Lebanon remains deprived of its former privilege of immunity from tithe and trades-tax.
Weaving. All silk of better quality is normally exported either as raw silk or as dried cocoons. What is rejected goes to the native looms, supplemented by Chinese silk. Cotton, and, to a less degree, wool, are also woven, the yarns being imported. Weaving is a home industry in a double sense, as it supplies primarily local needs and is carried on by workers who have two or three wooden hand-looms in their houses, or a dozen or so in small buildings called kaiserliks. The output is limited and labour poorly paid, grown silkweavers earning 1-2 frs. a day, cottonweavers half that sum, boys 15-50 centimes; women are hardly employed, except in Aleppo and the Lebanon. Cloths of pure silk, cotton, and wool are produced, and also mixtures of these, the kind and quality varying at the different centres, of which the chief are Aleppo, Homs, Damascus, Aintab, the Lebanon, Hama, and Gaza. At Aleppo in 1909 there were 5,500 looms for cotton, and 4,500 for silk, or silk and cotton, but a more recent report gives the numbers
