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U.N. Body Urges Number States to Admit Jewish Displaced Persons

June 21, 1948
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An appeal to the 58 member states of the United Nations to admit large numbers of displaced Jews was made here today in a report prepared by a special committee which has just completed a survey of the problem of resettling DP’s. The report, which was prepared in collaboration with the International Refugee Organization, was circulated today by the U.N. Secretariat to all member nations.

Emphasizing that there is very little hope for the resettlement of the displaced Jews anywhere outside of Palestine at this time, the report revealed that during the first nine months of the I.R.O.’s existence, the agency resettled 145 000 refugees, of whoa only 21,500 were Jews, The United States admitted 3,280 Jews during that period. At the same time, a total of 1,820 Jews entered Canada, 1,310 went to Latin America, 360 to Australia and 5,800 Entered Palestine. The report points out that the total number of resettled Jews in “well below first expectations. “

Prepared at the direction of the U.H. General Assembly, the report will be submitted to the meeting of the U.H. Economic and Social Council which will take place next month in Geneva. Cementing on the problems of the displaced Jews, the survey says:

“It would be unfortunate to try and disguise the fact that the prospects for resettlement of Jewish nationals outside of Palestine are very poor at the moment. Recent events in Palestine and the attitudes of certain of the Jewish organizations lave no doubt contributed to malting a number of governments reluctant to give assent to any mass resettlement of Jews, and without openly declaring that they are unwilling to accept Jewish immigrants, the various nations almost invariably turn down Jews who come “before them.

“In many cases, this, of course, may he for practical reasons, as a number of them are not particularly well equipped for strenuous manual and physical labor in coal mines or the factories open to them. But the hard fact remains that, unless governments can be prevailed upon to open their doors, Jewish immigration from the camps and areas outside the camps to countries other than Palestine will be a mere trickle {not even sufficient to offset the number of births in the Jewish camps.)

“It would not be inappropriate if the organization should make a special effort to try to bring home to the large majority of nations which in the General As-stably of the United nations professed their sympathy for the Jews the desirability of expressing it la action, and not only in words–words that so far have had little appreciable result.

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