nationalistic movement which is now affecting almost every country in Europe. This movement is the outcome of a number of historical causes going back many years and is made exceedingly acute now by the economic conditions which are oppressing the world at present.”
Mr. McDonald emphasized that, out of a total of 80,500 refugees from Germany, the largest number has been settled in Palestine, There are today 27,000 German refugees located in Palestine, 6,000 in the United States, 3,000 in South American countries and 800 in other overseas countries. Eighteen thousand have been repatriated to countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Refugees still living in European lands number 25,700, Mr. McDonald said.
In his report he paid particular tribute to the work of the American Joint Distribution Committee, which has been the most active force in the provision of relief to the refugees in many countries.
Reporting to the governing body on his recent trip to countries of South and Central America to study economic opportunities and immigration possibilities for refugees there, he stated:
“In all Latin-America the largest economic possibilities are in Argentine and in Brazil, but it is precisely in those countries that the present obstacles to immigration are most difficult. Elsewhere in South and Central America the immigration restrictions are much less severe.”
Commenting on the absorption of German Jewish refugees in Palestine, the High Commissioner declared that “Palestine continues to be the chief country of refuge. That small territory, about the size of Wales, has absorbed on a permanent basis more refugees than all other countries in the world together. This is a record in which the organizations chiefly concerned may fairly take pride.
“But Palestine could not have absorbed these tens of thousands if it had not been for the preparatory work carried through during many years of self-sacrifice and devotion by the thousands who have striven ceaselessly for the ideal of a Jewish National Home. Nor is it without significance that Palestine continues to be one of the very few countries prosperous enough to complain of a shortage of labor.
“The refugees in Palestine are playing a constructive role not only in material things but also in the spiritual and moral upbuilding of their new homeland.”
GERMAN REPATRIATION IMPOSSIBLE
Referring to the possibility of repatriation to Germany of refugees unable to find openings in countries of refuge, Mr. McDonald declared that “it is impossible for the organizations to recommend in any case any person who had fled Germany to return. The German government has taken drastic measures against those returning, not only preventing them from taking employment, but confining them in ‘re-education camps.'”
Of approximately 50,000 refugees who remain in Europe and who have not been able to emigrate overseas, “fifteen to twenty percent are non-Jews who have left Germany for political causes for reasons of conscience,” High Commissioner McDonald reported. He stated that “owing to the falling off of the contributions for relief there is a grave position among some thousands of the refugees in Paris and Prague and among a smaller number in Amsterdam and other centers. The position is particularly difficult for the non-Jews in these places because of the failure of the Christian bodies hither to, with the splendid exception of the Quakers, to raise funds for assistance.”
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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.
