60,000 War Refugees in Rumania; Plight Reported Desperate

Reports reaching here tonight said that at least 60,000 war refugees from Poland, about half of them Jewish, have found their way into Rumania and many other thousands have been admitted to Hungary and Lithuania. All were reported to be in urgent need of relief.

The plight of thousands on the Rumanian frontier was said to be catastrophic. With out food and shelter for days, women, children and aged were reported to be spending their nights under the open sky, anxiously awaiting relief.

Arrangements to aid war refugees have been made with the various governments bordering Poland by the World Jewish Congress and the OSE, Jewish health society, it was announced here.

The world headquarters of the OSE said its organization has already started feeding of children and adult refugees on the Baltic-Polish frontiers, especially along the Lithuanian border where a majority of the war refugees are Jews.

The Congress said it is surveying the refugee situation on the Latvian, Lithuanian, Hungarian and Rumanian frontiers. It declared that it has secured permission for the investigation from the respective governments, which promised to aid the Congress representatives in their survey.

The Joint Distribution Committee has organized a permanent committee here, representing Jewish groups from various countries, to deal with relief for their needy “landsleit” in Paris. Fifty thousand francs have been allotted by the J.D.C. as an initial fund for this committee, which will begin by opening free kitchens and by extending aid to various professionals, including writers and actors, who have been thrown out of work as a result of the war.

The Federation of Jewish Societies, representative body of Jewish immigrants, has issued an appeal to all its member groups to institute self-taxation to enable the Federation to maintain as many free kitchens as possible. A similar appeal has been issued in Brussels by a specially formed committee of local Jewish leaders.