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Arrival of 600 Spanish Refugees Complicates Dominican Settlement Problem

November 14, 1939
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A shipload of Spanish refugees has landed, without any preparation having been made for their absorption, at Ciudad Trujillo, Dominican Republic, and another is en route from France, it was learned from an official source today. This development was seen as complicating the problem of Dominican settlement.

The refugees, some 600 in all, are Spanish Loyalists who fled across the border during the civil war. The first group landed last week from the French steamship Flandres and were allowed to disembark because they held visas stamped by the Dominican minister in Paris. The refugees said that “the Intergovernmental Committee sent us,” but a source close to the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees here denied this.

The Intergovernmental Committee has announced a project for colonization of refugees from Germany in the Dominican Republic, the first 500 of whom were to have been selected from refugees in the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries.

Andres Pastoriza, Dominican Minister in Washington, commenting on the arrival of the Spanish refugees, said: “The people came without any notice and I don’t know what will happen to them.” He said he had received no official advices from his Government concerning their arrival.

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