The Belgian Government will permit 250 of the 907 German Jewish refugees on board the Hamburg-bound St. Louis to disembark at Antwerp, it was disclosed here yesterday. (Published briefly in JTA News, June 12).
Action of the Belgian Government followed negotiations on behalf of the refugees by Morris Troper, European chairman of the American Jewish Joint distribution, Dr. Max Gottschalk of the Belgian Jewish Refugee Committee and the HIAS-ICA Emigration Association.
England, meanwhile, has definitely refused to accept any of the refugees. Negotiations for landing about 500 of the exiles in the International Zone of Morocco are continuing, with the support of the French Government.
The HIAS-ICA announced receipt of a radiogram from the Committee of Refugees aboard the St. Louis, calling upon the organization to make a Supreme effort to secure the refugees’ disembarkation at some port before the steamer reaches Hamburg.
Altogether, it was revealed, 743 of the St. Louis passengers possess either United States affidavits or numbers for American immigration visas. If the negotiations are successful, these will be permitted to stay in Belgium or Tangier until their turn to enter the United States under quota visas is reached. Chances for the remaining passengers, in whose interests Mr. Troper was contacting various countries, appeared slimmer. Mr. Troper emphasized that the Joint Distribution Committee was willing to post guarantees of $500 for each of the refugees as security that they would not become public charges.
Meanwhile, Mr. Troper radioed the captain of the St. Louis that he was seeking a new haven for his passengers. At the same time, the Hamburg-American Line issued an ultimatum that the vessel would be ordered to proceed at full speed to Hamburg directly if definite advices on the possibility of landing the passengers outside the Reich were not received by noon today. The line also demanded payment of $5,000 on the grounds that it had spent that sum in extra fuel while trying to land the passengers in Cuba.
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.
