Approximately 4,000 persons have been admitted to Palestine as war refugees, it was stated today by a Colonial Office spokesman, who emphasized that about 40 percent of them were Jews.
More than 2,400 of the refugees were from Poland, 270 from Germany, 340 from Czechoslovakia and 990 from the Baltic and Balkan States. Almost all of them left their countries of origin in advance of enemy occupation or severance of relations with Great Britain.
In making these figures public, officials of the Colonial Office disclosed that two-thirds of the 4,000 war refugees were admitted into Palestine at the request of the British Government in London as being persons of Allied nationality for whom a temporary asylum must be found. The remainder reached Palestine through their own arrangements. All refugees were subjected to a “security check” and detained until inquiries had established their identity. Those unable to satisfy the security authorities in Palestine have remained in detention.
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