Britain Rejects Jewish Congress Proposal on Aid to Jews in Aden

The Colonial Office has turned down a World Jewish Congress proposal that government loans totalling 80,000 pounds advanced to members of the Aden Jewish community after the anti-Jewish riots in that protectorate in December 1947 be converted into grants, the W.J.C. announced here today.

Immediately after the riots, it was estimated that the Jewish population suffered property losses amounting to nearly 900,000 pounds. An investigating commission accepted “as fully substantiated” losses amounting to 400,000 pounds and recommended the payment of grants totalling 200,000 pounds to victims of the disorders. A government assistance scheme eventually made outright grants of about 60,000 pounds and gave individual 15-year loans amounting to about 80,000 pounds. Repayment was scheduled to start this past April.

In March, the Aden Jewish community, in a memorandum to the Aden Administration, stressed that an economic slump in 1951 complicated by the insecurity of the Jewish population after the pogroms and the inadequacy of the government assistance scheme had made repayment impossible. The community also sought the assistance of the W.J.C. in this matter.

After the Congress had raised the question with the government and the Colonial Office had consulted the Governor of Aden, the Colonial Office informed the Congress that it agreed with the Governor’s view that the assistance rendered was the “maximum that could be expected” and that “by far the majority of the members of the Jewish community who remained in Aden had successfully re-established themselves.” The W.J.C. today pledged itself to new efforts in behalf of the Aden community.