American Consuls in Germany Charged with Hampering Emigration of Displaced Persons

The New York press today reported from Geneva and Germany that the movement of displaced persons to the United States has stalled and that there is a serious danger that many persons who could be admitted under the two-year quota of 205,000 will not be able to come because of red tape.

A New York Times correspondent, reporting from Geneva whore he interviewed International Refugee Organization personnel, says that no visas are being granted at present by U.S. consulates, thus binding the hands of the I.R.O. which cannot assist DP’s to leave the camps until they obtain visas. With the passage of the DP law, President Truman’s order of Dec. 22, 1945, facilitating DP immigration, was suspended and some 1,500 persons eligible to leave for the U.S. were prevented from doing so by U.S. consulates which ruled that visas obtained under the old order are no longer valid.

The Times reporter points out that the consulates are not accepting security check reports issued by the Army’s Counter-Intelligence Corps and are making their own security investigations, as provided for in the new measure. This provides for an expensive and time-consuming duplication of effort. I.R.O. officials, the Times report states, fear that many persons who waited years for the opportunity to go to the United States will be stranded. “As matters stand,” the Times reports, “it is easier for a former Nazi to enter the United States than for one of the Nazis’ innocent victims.”

A report published in the New York Herald Tribune from an American who has served for more than two years as an official worker among DP’s in Germany states that conditions for the DP is getting worse, while for the German conditions are improving–a situation which the writer, Mrs. Dorothea Greene, states has existed during her entire stay in Germany.