Listing a number of celebrities who have been imperiled by the Franco-German armistice clause demanding return to Germany of German subjects residing in France, the New York Times urged in an editorial today that refugees whose lives have thus been endangered be brought here on American ships for temporary refuge.
The editorial cites America’s record as a home of the oppressed, recalls that “even the Exclusion Act of 1917 exempted from the literacy test aliens who seek admission to avoid religious, racial and political persecution,” and concludes:
“Since the right of asylum is traditional, the refugees whose lives now hang in the balance should be brought here in American ships, granted a temporary right of asylum and distributed among the democracies of the Western Hemisphere. Even the relief of the stricken millions who are now wandering homeless in conquered territories is not so urgent.”
Among those listed by the Times as endangered by the armistice clause are: Lion Feuchtwanger, novelist (now reported safe in Lisbon); Dr. Rudolf Neumann, noted pediatrician; Dr. Herman Buszislawski, successor to Karl von Ossietsky as editor of Die Weltbuehne; Theodore Balk, social medicine authority; Dr. Adolph Hofmeister, Czech cartoonist; Rudolph Leonhard, German poet; Anna Saghers, Kleist prize winner, and Dr. Friedrich Wolf, author of “Professor Mamlock” and other plays.
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.
