Jewish Organizations Present Plea for Special Relief Measures to Unrra Council

A plea for special assistance by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration for Jews in liberated and enemy-held territory and for resettlement and repatriation of Jewish refugees who have either been compelled to flee their homes or been forcibly deported, was presented over the weekend to the joint UNRRA committee on Health, Welfare, and Displaced Persons by Saul Hayes, executive director of the Canadian Jewish Congress on behalf of major American and Canadian Jewish organizations.

The groups for which Mr. Hayes spoke were the American Jewish Committee, the American Jewish Conference, World Jewish Congress, Canadian Jewish Congress and Agudas Israel. It is also known that the Joint Distribution Committee approved the proposals, which were drawn up at a meeting of representatives of all the Jewish organizations. At that time it was agreed that a single Jewish program would be submitted by a spokesman jointly chosen by all the groups.

Discussing the repatriation of refugees at a press conference yesterday, Dr. George L. Warren, American chairman of the Committee on Displaced Persons, said that priority in repatriation will be given to groups in internment camps rather than individuals. He cited as an example Poles now in Mexican camps, among whom there are some Jews. He stated that UNRRA will not assist refugees being helped by private relief organizations. Dr. Warren stressed that UNRRA could not force any country to receive its former nationals.

The feeling here, as the session of the UNRRA council prepares to close, is that the meeting dealt successfully with vital Jewish problems including the question of Jewish nationals of enemy countries and recognized, finally, that the problems of the Jews of Europe must be dealt with separately.