— John Wilberforce, Britain’s chief delegate to the European security review conference taking place in Madrid, Tuesday denounced the Soviet Union for manipulating the rate at which Jews were allowed to emigrate from the USSR for political purposes, according to press reports from Madrid. Wilberforce said that sudden increase in applications granted in February “as a security precaution in advance of the recent (Communist Party) congress” was followed by a slump to below last year’s level. Meanwhile, the Intergovernmental Committee for Migration based in Geneva reported Tuesday that 1250 Jews left the USSR last month. Of this number, 217 emigrated to Israel.
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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.