On the eve of the debate in the House of Commons on the results of the Bermuda conference on refugees, which is scheduled for next week, leading members of Parliament today addressed a press conference arranged by the National Committee for the Rescue of Nazi Victims at which the British Government was urged to adopt the following program of action:
1. Irrespective of measures which other nations may take with regard to rescuing Nazi victims, the British Government should adopt the most generous policy in helping people from Nazi-held territories to find asylum in free countries.
2. The British authorities must revise the existing visa regulations in order to enable more refugees from Nazi Europe to enter the country.
3. Camps to provide temporary shelter for refugees escaping Nazi lands must be established in North and East Africa, Cyprus and the Isle of Man.
4. Neutral countries must be encouraged to admit more refugees from German and German-occupied territories as well as from Nazi-dominated lands.
5. Neutral ships as well as returning troop and supply vessels should be used for transportation of refugees.
6. Temporary camps for refugees should be established in Palestine, irrespective of the Palestine immigration quota. The selection and transportation of the 4,000 Jewish children and 500 adults from Bulgaria to Palestine should be speeded up.
7. An exchange of interned Axis sympathizers for Jews living in Axis countries should be arranged.
8. The arrangements which have been reached with Bulgaria and Hungary with regard to emigration of Jews from these countries, should be extended to other satellite countries.
9. The United Nations should appoint a High Commissioner to visit neutral and Allied countries to negotiate for the maximum admission of refugees.
10. The British Government should establish a new central authority in England to deal with refugee rescue work.
The conference also demanded increased pressure on satellite countries to permit mass-emigration of Jews from these countries, and urged that the British Government shower the people in those countries with appeals by radio and leaflets to extend aid to the persecuted Jews.
“The case of one innocent Jewish victim, Captain Dreyfus, roused the world,” Miss Eleanor Rathbone, Independent, said, addressing the conference, “now millions of innocent Jews are perishing.” Major Cazalet, Conservative, who presided at the conference, said that “public opinion must force the British Government to do more than we have done for the refugees.” The conference was held in a committee room of the House of Commons.
James Malcolm, former Colonial official, in a statement to the press today, warned the Jews that they may lose “the fruits of Zionist endeavor” unless they achieve unity within their own ranks. Recalling his part in the negotiations which led to the issuance of the Balfour Declaration, he urged the Jews in Britain to call a conference for the purpose of achieving internal unity.
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.
