The French Foreign Office announced tonight that the 4,500 visaless Jews who arrived in Palestine on the Exodus are being taken to the Riviera port of Ville Franche sur Mer.
The announcement, which dispelled the fog of rumors which has surrounded the whereabouts of the refugees since they left Haifa Saturday morning ostensibly bound for Cyprus, said that they would be held in France until arrangements could be made to send them to Colombia for which they had visas.
However, a spokesman for the Ministry of the Interior said that the government viewed the matter "most seriously" and will not make any decision on the disposition of the refugees until tomorrow. He told a Jewish Telegraphic Agency correspondent that "the decision will be in accordance with the interests of France as well as humanitarian principles."
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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.
