The British Government has sent a note to the French Foreign Office drawing its attention to the situation at the village of La Ciotat, 25 miles from Marseilles, which the British allege is an embarkation center for visaless Jews seeking to reach Palestine, it was learned today. According to the newspaper France Soir the refugee vessel Latrun, which arrived in Palestine last week, sailed from La Ciotat.
Reports from Haifa say that British intelligence officers there have discovered a list of about 100 ships which it is planned to use to bring 100,000 visaless Jews to Palestine within the next few months. The reports say that most of the ships are unseaworthy tramps, although included among them are converted Canadian corvettes, a former Hungarian gun boat and luxury yachts. The list will be studied by the British naval commander in the Mediterranean, Admiral Sir Algernon Willis, at a forthcoming conference at Malta to discuss means of checking illegal immigration.
ORT circles here expressed surprise that the training ship Cutty Sark, operated by the Jewish Marine League, which is affiliated with the ORT, was included in the list of blockade runners. They said that the vessel was used solely for training Jewish seamen for service anywhere in the world. In order to increase its accommodations, the Cutty Sark’s engines were recently removed, they pointed out.
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.
