The Israeli Government has agreed to accept all Jewish refugees in China desiring to leave, according to officials here of the Joint Distribution Committee and of Palamt, the immigration unit of the Jewish Agency. A total of 5,000 Europeans, plus another 4,000 Russian Jews, who have been in China since before the Hitler regime, are involved.
Adolph C. Glassgold, of New York, China director for the J.D.C., estimated that probably 90 percent of the 9,000 refugees would accept emigration to Israel. M. Lurie, the Israeli consular representative in Shanghai, who is now in New York, is expected within three days to make arrangements for the first blocks of Israeli visas.
Meanwhile, William Tuck, chief of the International Refugee Organization, cabled the I.R.O. local office here that if the China refugees refuse to accept the Israeli invitation, there can be no guarantee of resettlement elsewhere or of continued I.R.O. maintenance. The I.R.O. is at present providing limited rations to 4,100 of these refugees.
This implicit threat of a halt to maintenance, however, does not extend to those 500 Jewish refugees in China who are sick or infirm. According to the cable from Tuck, the migration of these Jews in China must await the approval of Dr. Ralph J. Bunche, United Nations acting mediator for Palestine. The J.D.C., however, is prepared to send them, whatever action is taken by the mediator, provided that their emigration is acceptable to the Israeli Government, which it apparently is.
The J.D.C., in conjunction with Palamt, is ready to ship 4,000 of the refugees, via the Cape of Good Hope, at a moment’s notice. The point is stressed here that the far more direct voyage by way of the Suez Canal is regarded as dangerous or might be “prohibited” presumably by the British or the Arabs.
J.D.C. WOULD FLY ALL DP’S TO ISRAEL. IF NECESSARY
The alternative to the prolonged journey to Israel via the Indian Ocean, the South Atlantic and the Mediterranean would be to fly the refugees to Israel, at a cost of at least $5,000,000. J.D.C. officials said today that they were prepared for that eventuality, if it appeared necessary and, in the end, more economical. In any case, in this mass emigration the cooperation of both the I.R.O. and the Chinese Nationalist Government is expected.
The only alternative to the appeal last week to Israel by Glassgold, which brought a favorable response, would have been a plea to the United States Consul General in Shanghai to accept these refugees as emergency cases, which would have necessitated a decision by Washington and which might have been weeks in the making. As it is, the United States may be asked to provide transport from China to Israel, in Lieu of providing asylum for these refugees at a time when the Nationalist forces are threatened by the Chinese Communists and Shanghai itself is not many miles from the fighting fronts.
The arrangements for the emigration thus far made are the result of a vast amount of cabling to Paris, Tal Aviv and New York. The majority of these refugees arrived in China ten years ago, and after the Japanese entered the war were imprison in concentration camps. After their liberation, they found it difficult to adjust themselves to life in China. The last status was that of enemy aliens. The Russian Jove among them came to China after the 1917 revolution.
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