Steps to remove the headquarters of the HIAS-ICA Emigration Association from Paris to Brussels, in order to facilitate refugee-aid operations, have been initiated by Dr. James Bernstein and Edouard Oungre, directors of the organization, who are now in the Belgian capital organizing details of the removal.
Transfer of the offices to a neutral country has been necessitated by a new French law which renders it difficult to send funds abroad to the various emigration institutions doing HIAS-ICA work in neutral lands and by the fact that it is difficult for the organization to deal from Paris with emigration of refugees who formerly were German citizens.
Meanwhile, it was announced, HIAS-ICA representatives have been active in Rumania in connection with the war refugees from Poland. Acting upon instructions from Paris, they have visited various Rumanian towns where refugees are concentrated and have compiled lists for transmission to the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society in New York through whom contact with relatives in America may be made.
In some areas, the HIAS-ICA men found the refugees badly treated by the local authorities, while in others they found the local Jewish communities completely unable to carry the burden of maintaining the refugees and complaining bitterly of the inadequacy of relief thus far extended.
Zionist groups in Rumania, they said, were trying to facilitate emigration of the refugees to Palestine but only a few could be accommodated in this way. Among those expected to leave for the Holy Land soon is Deputy Henry Rosmarin. Dr. Ignacy Schwarzbard, also a Sejm deputy and a Zionist leader, has a Palestine visa but will remain in Rumania as the World Jewish Congress is planning to send him to the United States on a speaking tour.
Prior to their departure for Brussels, the HIAS-ICA leaders announced that the organization’s intervention had resulted in Shanghai’s indicating its willingness to receive added Jewish refugees. Entry, however, will be limited to refugees having relatives in the Chinese city and others possessing $400 per adult and $100 per child.
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.
