The original suggestion contained in the “Schacht plan” that emigration of Jews from Germany be financed by an international loan to sponsor increased German exports has been completely dropped as a result of the Berlin negotiations of George Rublee, director of the Intergovernmental Refugee Bureau. This, it was reliably learned, was one of the major points on which Mr. Rublee reported to today’s executive session of the steering committee of the Intergovernmental Committee in the French Foreign Office.
Other modifications which Mr. Rublee succeeded in obtaining before the negotiations were interrupted by the removal of Dr. Hjalmar Schacht as president of the Reichsbank are: (1) A definite quota was agreed upon between Mr. Rublee and the German authorities whereby a set number of Jews and “non-Aryans” would be permitted to leave the Reich with capital each year. (2) This emigration would be financed solely by Jewish capital, blocked within the Reich, which would be held in trust for the furthering of the planned immigration into other countries.
With the dropping of the plan for an external loan, a new and important turn was given to the negotiations which Mr. Rublee will resume in Berlin this week, since it signifies Germany’s withdrawal of the demand for promotion of increased German exports as the price of Jewish emigration.
At today’s session, Mr. Rublee submitted no written report, but summarized the results of his two-week stay in Berlin orally. Thereupon, the session decided to authorize him and his aides to return to the Reich capital to continue the conversations. They are leaving for Berlin tomorrow evening to remain there indefinitely, until the negotiations are concluded. The plenary meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee, which was scheduled to open in London this Friday, was postponed until Feb. 12, by which time Mr. Rublee is expected to have definite results to report.
Although the draft of the agreement reached so far between Mr. Rublee and the German authorities has not yet been initialed, it is taken for granted that the negotiations in Berlin will be resumed from the point where they were interrupted. Considering the negotiations so far satisfactory, the committee officers nevertheless abstained from discussing the details at today’s session, preferring not to express themselves either for or against, but to leave Mr. Rublee a free hand to continue the talks in the same spirit as hitherto.
The committee officers limited themselves to issuing a short communique through the French Foreign Office which said that the steering committee had met under the chairmanship of Lord Winterton of Great Britain, chairman of the Intergovernmental Committee, to hear the report from Mr. Rublee on his Berlin negotiations.
A luncheon followed the session at which Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet of France presided and which was attended by Myron C. Taylor, American vice-chairman of the committee, Lord Winterton, Mr. Rublee, and his assistants, Robert T. Pell and Joseph Cotton; Senator Henri Berenger, French vice-chairman, the Argentine Ambassador, the Brazilian Minister and several French and British high officials.
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.
