Mcnarney Says He is Trying to Discourage “organized Movements” of Jews into U.S. Zone

Gen. Joseph T. McNarney, commander of the U.S. zone in Germany, said today that he is trying to discourage “organized movements” of Jews “from other areas. The United States zone is not a way-station on the road to Palestine,” he added.

“I accept those who have been persecuted and give them temporary haven,” Gen. McNarney told a press conference, adding that “I will not accept movements of those who have not been persecuted.” He explained that was the reason why American outposts had recently turned back 700 Jews who tried to enter from the British zone “where they were not being persecuted.” He said that there was a well-organized movement of Jews into U.S.-held sections of Germany and an “organized evacuation of Jews from Poland.”

BRITISH ALSO TIGHTENING CONTROLS ON IMMIGRATION INTO THEIR ZONE

Speaking to correspondents in the British zone about the same time, Air Marshal Sir Sholto Douglas, British commander, disclosed that he was tightening border controls in the British zone because of the great influx of refugees.

Predicting that displaced persons would cost the United States $80,000,000 a year after UNRRA suspends operations on Dec. 31, Gen. McNarney revealed officially that the Army has already drafted plans to take over operations of the DP camps from UNRRA.

Lieut. Gen, Geoffrey Keynes, commander of the Third Army, will be in charge of the camps, he said. He stated that he hoped that the Army could retain as many employees of UNRRA as possible, but that he was limited by lack of adequate funds. Congressional appropriations, he asserted, are not sufficient to take care of both the DP’s and the problem of feeding the Germans.

Referring to the mass exodus of Jews from Poland into the American zone, the U.S. commander in Europe said that while their flight was organized the Polish Government was “in the clear.” He pointed out that the government has outlawed anti-Semitism and resettled repatriated Jews from the Soviet Union, but said that it could not control anti-Semitic elements.

If the United States military authorities here tolerated organized movements of refugees, and provided them with food and accommodations, it would result in as many as 200,000 Jews entering American-occupied Germany from Hungary, Rumania and Bulgaria, McNarney declared. “It is the desire of the Jewish race as a whole to have a home such as Palestine. This desire extends all over Europe.”

(The Czechoslovak border through which Jews from Poland crossed into the American and British zones in Germany and Austria, has been closed to refugees, according to information received by Jewish leaders in Paris today.)