The British Government has laid down no definite policy regarding the disposition of future visaless immigrants to Palestine, it was learned from authoritative sources today.
A Foreign Office spokesman declared that the disposition of each transport of “illegal” immigrants would be decided individually. He added that the government has been in touch with Bulgaria and Rumania on the question of the blockade runners Paducah and Northlands, but did not reveal the attitude of the Balkan states. The spokesman also indicated that the British forces are exercising increased vigilance in order to prevent visaless immigration, including shadowing all suspected vessels.
(A group of 100-odd Jews who left Marseilles for Australia on Sunday aboard the steamer Tidelands were the subject of a controversy today. A dispatch from Canberra quoted Australian Immigration Minister Arthur Calwell as saying that the immigrants had not left with the authorization of his department, and were probably bound for Palestine. However, Australian Embassy officials in Paris said that the immigrants had been granted permission to embark for Australia. Lewis Neikrug, HIAS director, who arranged the embarkation of the refugees, said that the Tidewater carried no more than 25 percent of Jews, in accordance with an Australian rulling that Jewish refugees would be admitted so long as they did not constitute more than one-quarter of the passenger list of any vessel reaching Australian ports.)
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