The arrival of 500 Jewish refugees on the Italian liner Augustus in Valparaiso late last month has stirred up much controversy in Chilean circles, according to the Catholic newspaper El Diario Ilustrado.
A protest meeting of Chilean merchants and industrialists to stop Jewish refugee immigration was held in Temuco and they organized “to defend their interests against new competitors,” the newspaper reports.
There are 2,000 Jews in Temuco and 52 Jewish stores established many years ago. Jewish leaders there charge that the anti-refugee and anti-Jewish propaganda is organized by the German colony in Chile. A parliamentary commission is studying the question of immigration of Jewish refugees into Chile.
A day before the arrival of the 500 Jewish refugees, a heated debate took place in the Chamber of Deputies. Deputy Benjamin Claro asked the Government to institute rigid control over refugee immigration and see that refugees do not stay in Santiago but are moved to rural districts.
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