Improvement in the treatment of Jewish refugees who are interned in Canada is expected soon as a result of the intervention by the United Jewish Refugee and War Relief Agencies with the Canadian authorities, it was disclosed here today.
The refugees, it is reported, will be permitted to write two letters a week on plain paper with no postage charged. Previously only one letter was permitted. The military guards in the camps will be withdrawn to outside the compound. It is also intended to move the barbed wire from the sight of the internees in the compound to a greater distance, thus eliminating a source of psychological irritation. Visits of relatives and friends will be allowed. Civilian clothes may be worn.
Some 300 internees have recently been returned to England in addition to the 600 returned some time ago. Some of these joined the Pioneer Corps and were named in the published casualty lists. More will proceed to England in the near future.
The United Jewish Refugee and War Relief Agencies in Montreal received a letter of thanks from the British administration of the Island of Mauritius where a number of Jewish refugees who were refused admission to Palestine are interned for the duration of the war. In acknowledging the sum of L1,000 sent by the Agencies “to provide comfort for the Jewish detainees” in Mauritius, the Colonial Secretary of the island gives assurance that “the money is being spent in the best possible way to brighten the lives of these poor people and to give them the maximum comfort”.
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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.
