A recommendation to liquidate at the end of this year the High Commission for Jewish and other Refugees from Germany, established by the League of Nations, and a demand that the League of Nations should assume direct responsibility for the relief and rehabilitation of the refugees, were made here today by James G. McDonald, High Commissioner for Refugees, at a meeting of the governing body of the commission, at which Viscount Cecil of Chelwood presided.
Asserting that the plight of many thousands of refugees continues to be great, Mr. McDonald stated that the High Commission, formed by the League members two years ago but owing no responsibility to the League itself, must be supplanted by “an organization created by the League of Nations as an integral part of the League system.”
In the course of his address, High Commissioner McDonald disclosed that there has been formed in the United States a Refugee Economic Corporation with a capital of $10,000,000. The capital already subscribed to this corporation amounts to $1,250,000, he said.
“This corporation,” Mr. McDonald reported, “was designed by some of the leaders of the American Jewish community for the purpose of assisting and furthering the constructive settlement of the refugees.”
He estimated that approximately ten million dollars has been raised during the last two years for the relief and rehabilitation of refugees from Germany.
“To this amount the Jews of the United States contributed $3,000,000 and the Jews of Great Britain Britain $2,500,000,” Mr. DcDonald said. “The organizations for the assistance of the academic and intellectual refugees, with the aid of the Rockefeller Foundation, raised together some $1,500,000,” he stated.
The demand of High Commissioner McDonald that the League should create a central organization which should consider all refugee problems, was supported by Viscount Cecil at today’s session of the governing body.
“The question of the refugees,” Viscount Cecil said, “is only one of the symptoms of the widespread
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
