Since Canada was not represented at the Bermuda Conference, it is a free agent and can act vigorously and independently to alleviate the suffering of the Jews in Nazi-held Europe, it was pointed out yesterday by a delegation of prominent Canadian Jewish leaders who were received by Minister of Mines Thomas A. Crerar, who is responsible for the government’s immigration policies.
The delegation, which represented the Canadian Jewish Congress and United Jewish Refugee and War Relief Agencies, included Samuel Bronfman, president of both groups, Saul Hayes, director of the Congress, and several others.
Mr. Hayes, who acted as spokesman for the group, stressed the fact that Canada can do a great deal to aid the Jews in Europe, even though a full solution of the problem must await an Allied victory and a destruction of the Axis powers. He said that Canada had a great opportunity to set an example for the rest of the democratic world by offering asylum now to Jews. He specifically suggested that the Ottawa government agree to admit Jewish refugee children now in Spain and Portugal, and also Yugoslav Jews who are presently in Italy.
Canada, Mr. Hayes added, could also ensure that the neutral countries such as Spain, Portugal and Turkey, would admit refugees, if it gave them guarantees that after the war it would admit a number of the refugees who are given asylum for the duration. The delegation also urged that these Jews who are still interned in Canada as “enemy aliens” be released.
Interviewed after the conference with Mr. Crerar, the delegation stated that they had been well received and had reason to believe that concrete results would follow from their recommendations, which, the minister promised, would be carefully considered.
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.
