Leon Falk Jr., Pittsburgh industrialist, philanthropist and chairman of the executive committee of the Dominican Republic Settlement Association sailed today, with his wife, on the steamship Coamo for a four-month survey of refugee colonization in the Republic, with particular attention to economic problems.
Also aboard the Coamo were 35 Austrian Jewish refugees, who came here from Switzerland via Lisbon, embarking on the last leg of their journey to the Sosua colony to join the approximately 300 colonists already there.
In an interview on shipboard, Falk stressed that he had found “tremendous interest” throughout the United States in the Sosua project. One large company, he said, had granted to the D.R.S.A. use, without royalties, of a recently-developed process for tenderizing beef. Other large companies were providing building materials at cost or less than cost for the colony, he said.
This will be Falk’s third visit to the Dominican Republic, he having made brief trips in July and August. His tour will be interrupted by occasional returns home by airplane. Falk is a member of the Pittsburgh family that created the Falk Foundation, which recently allocated $50,000 for an economic survey of the Dominican Republic by the Brookings Institution. He is also chairman of the Community Fund of Pittsburgh.
The 35 refugees include eight married couples and a 13-year-old girl. Another 52 refugees are now in Lisbon awaiting transportation to Sosua.
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.
