Negotiations looking toward exchange of Palestine children detained in Germany for German women and children held in Palestine are proceeding rapidly, through the good offices of the United States Embassy, Colonial Undersecretary George Hall announced in Commons today.
Replying to a question by Captain W.F. Strickland, Conservative, the Government spokesman said he hoped an exchange on a reciprocal basis could be effected soon.
Hall also revealed, in reply to a question from Col. Josiah Wedgwood, Laborite, that 1,634 recently-arrived illegal immigrants in Palestine, other than the survivors of the S.S. Patria, had been deported to Mauritius, where they would be detained for the duration of the war. (Mauritius is an island off the coast of Madegascar.)
To Col. Wedgwood’s further question as to why Jews were not permitted to immigrate to Palestine, the Colonial Undersecretary declared that a quota for the current six months was not issued partly because under present conditions prospective immigrants could seldom reach Palestine in the period contemplated for their absorption in economic life of the country and partly because of difficult economic conditions and widespread unemployment caused by the war.
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