The Italian Government today rejected the appeal of Telesforo R. Calderon, Dominican Minister in Rome, to permit transit for 500 refugees scheduled to sail May 24 from Genoa on the Italian steamship Neptuna for the Dominican Republic, the State Department disclosed.
William Phillips, American Ambassador in Rome, has been instructed by the State Department to back Calderon with all his power.
Calderon had gone to the Italian Foreign Office and protested vigorously against the ban on transit of German Jews. “These people are necessary to my country,” the Dominican Minister was quoted as saying. “They had been given permission to enter my country. We were expecting them and we see no reason for the Italian Government refusing to allow them to sail.”
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.
