President Federico Laredo Bru today issued a decree ordering the Hamburg-American Line’s agent to arrange for immediate departure of the liner St. Louis with more than 900 refugees aboard. Lawyers for the line said they planned to appeal against the ruling on the ground that the decree does not become effective until published in the official gazette.
Meanwhile, Pero Mendieta, chairman of the Immigration Committee of the House of Representatives, announced that he planned to introduce a bill providing for the deportation of all European refugees who have arrived here since Nov. 1. He estimated the bill would affect about 4,000 persons.
The St. Louis was originally scheduled to sail on Tuesday, but ship’s officers delayed the vessel’s departure in hope the ban against the refugees’ disembarkation would be lifted. With threats of trouble and mass suicides aboard the stamer increasing, Captain Wilhelm Schroder addressed letters to President Bru and to the German Legation here declaring that he could not be responsible for what happens aboard his ship if the passengers are forced to return to Germany.
A desperate appeal, reportedly signed by 230 children, was drafted by the refugees to be sent to President Bru’s wife. The President has also received many cables from Christian philanthropic organizations in the United States urging that the refugees be allowed to land. Although Lawrence Berenson, who is here with Miss Cecilia Razovsky on behalf of the National Coordinating Committee for Refugees in New York, continued conferences with the authorities, there appeared to be no sign of relaxation of the Government’s policy. “The Government is determined to maintain the immigration laws inflexibly,” declared Presidential Secretary Alonso Puchol.
Meanwhile, immigration authorities at the Cuban port of Santiago refused permission to land last night to 14 Jewish refugees who arrived aboard the French liner St. Domingue. The ship proceeded to Haiti, where it was thought the refugees might be given entry.
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