Jewish Organizations in England Drafting Joint Memorandum to Bermuda Conference

Jewish leaders met in conference here today to prepare the final draft of a memorandum which will be submitted through the British Government to the Anglo-American Conference on refugee problems which opens in Bermuda on Monday.

The memorandum will be submitted in behalf of the Joint Emergency Consultative Committee which is composed of representatives of the Joint Foreign Committee of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the British section of the World Jewish Congress, the Jewish Agency for Palestine and the World Orthodox Agudas Israel Organization. The document will contain practical proposals covering the whole field of possible rescue measures. All four participating organizations are reported to have agreed on the main lines of the proposals.

Jewish leaders here are satisfied with the composition of the British delegation to the Bermuda Conference. The appointment of Richard K. Law, the Under-Secretary of the Foreign Office, is considered an indication that the British Government intends to deal with the general political aspect of the refugee situation. The fact that Under-Secretary Osbert Peake of the Home Office is one of the delegates is interpreted by them to mean that the British Government will discuss at the Conference the possibilities of giving asylum in Britain to refugees.

The most significant indication of the possibilities of the Bermuda Conference, Jewish leaders feel, is the fact that one of the three British delegates is the Under-Secretary of the Admiralty, George Hall. This is taken here to mean that the question of providing transportation facilities for refugees will probably be one of the central points of discussion at the parley. Transportations difficulties have, hitherto, been the crux of the entire refugee problem.