The Australian Government extended numerus clausus restrictions on the admission of “non-British Jews” in order to limit the number entering the Commonwealth by plane, it was learned here today. The new restrictions, which will become effective Nov. 15, are aimed at preventing the large-scale movement of visaed immigrants via planes chartered by voluntary organizations. They extend to plane travel the curbs which have been in effect for sea travel for the last year, limiting the number of “non-British Jews” to 25 percent of the total passenger list.
The new move is a setback in the orderly settlement of the refugee problem, since in recent months the voluntary organizations have been arranging to transport a number of refugees with Australian visas by air in order to bypass the acute shipping bottle-neck.
The Australian Embassy in Paris notified the travel agencies of the new regulations and warned that “this restriction will be severely applied and every non-British Jewish person above the quota of 25 percent of the total number of passengers in any one plane will be forbidden debarkation in Australia.”
The notice justifies the restrictions on the ground that priority must be given to “tens of thousands of Britons who desire to emigrate to Australia” and also prevent discrimination in the assignment of travel facilities against thousands of visa-holders, “Jews and non-Jews,” who are not considered refugees.
The voluntary organizations caring for refugees, according to the Australian notice, “should not be in a position to retain a considerable number of places which they could later allocate to a special class of immigrants to the detriment of ethers.”
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