Dingle Foot, Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry of Economic Warfare, told the House of Commons today that both the British and American governments had assured neutral countries that additional supplies would be passed through the blockade if they allowed Hungarian Jewish children to enter. Both governments, he added, have offered to see that the supplies are forthcoming.
No word has been received yet from neutral countries on their willingness to receive Jewish children under ten years of age according to the plan advanced by Regent Nicholas Horthy of Hungary, the British official reported. He added, however, that certain countries, notably Switzerland and Sweden, had always been cooperative in the past.
The Horthy government, Foot said, had been informed through the Red Cross that the British are anxious to do everything possible to see that the children are rescued as soon as possible. He said that the failure of previous schemes of this nature had not been the fault of the neutrals, but had been due to the reluctance of the Nazis to release the children.
Sir John Hope Simpson, who conducted the Refugee Survey of the Royal Institute of International Affairs in 1938, and who, in 1930, issued an official report advocating the stoppage of Jewish immigration to Palestine, today urged that Britain and the United States throw their doors open to refugees from the continent. Such havens, rather than Palestine, will provide a solution for the refugee problem, Sir John says in a letter to the Times.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.