Finding “living Room” for Reich Refugees Held Test of Civilization

The problem of finding “living room” for German refugees was declared editorially in the New York Times yesterday to constitute “a test of civilization itself.” Assailing the “cool effrontery” of the German Government in expecting the “effete” democracies to find a refuge for its hundreds of thousands of persecuted outcasts the Times said:

“The problem before the world, however, is not how to deal with the insolent assumptions of a Government whose very fanaticism has been proved spurious. The problem posed by the German refugees constitutes a test of civilization itself. It has nothing to do with race or creed. It is not a Jewish problem or a Gentile problem. It does not belong to Europe or to America. It is the problem of mankind, for if there is not left in the world enough respect for elementary human rights and the dignity of the human spirit to make a place elsewhere for 400,000 innocent human beings who are still to be hounded out of Germany, then the shadow of Totalitaria hangs over us all. The Nazis can conquer only as they can enforce their barbarous code on free peoples, and free peoples are defeated only if they prove incapable of carrying the extra burdens the defense of freedom imposes in times like these. Nazidom’s exiles form one of these burdens; they are the acid test of the vitality of all those values their eviction repudiates.”

Praising President Roosevelt’s “warm and continued interest” in the refugee problem as manifested by his invitation to the Evian Committee directorate and applauding organization of the Coordinating Foundation and the British proposal to have governments finance resettlement, the editorial concludes: “At the end it all comes down to one question: If we cannot find “living room” for these innocent outcasts of the Third Reich in a world still dominated by democratic Powers, how long will there be living room for freedom?”