Jewish Laborers Will Receive Two-thirds of Palestine Immigration Visas

Efforts on the part of the Jewish Agency to secure, under the new immigration schedule, the return to Palestine of Jewish refugees interned on the island of Mauritius as well as the admittance of the 769 Rumanian Jews who reached Turkey last week on a sinking freighter, have been unsuccessful, it was learned here today.

At a public meeting today Elihu Dobkin, head of the immigration department of the Jewish Agency, announced that two-thirds of the immigration certificates received last week from the Palestine Government will be allotted to laborers, especially to those needed for war industries. 270 certificates will be assigned for youths, and the balance will be granted to relatives of Palestinian Jews and to immigrants who fall into the “capitalist” category.

Declaring that the bulk of immigration under the new schedule is expected to be Jewish refugees from Poland who are now stranded in Russia, the Far East and Turkey, Mr. Dobkin revealed that when the Palestine Government was asked to assign immigration certificates for the 769 Jews who escaped from Rumania on the freighter Strume, which reached Turkish shores under the most trying circumstances, it refused to comply with the request. It is understood, however, that the Government asked the British Embassy in Turkey to grant Palestine visas to the children on the Strume between the ages of 13 and 16 and that the Jewish Agency is making arrangements for the transportation of these youngsters from Turkey to Palestine and to absorb them in youth institutions, and place some of them with relatives here.

A group of 110 Jews from Iraq and Yemen is now on its way to Palestine and will be admitted into the country under the recent immigration schedule.