The British Government last night offered the Jewish refugees detained here for nearly a month aboard the Fede an additional 335 immigration certificates for Palestine, which would be available in the middle of May. With the offer of 679 certificates made two days earlier, the total number is now 1,014, enough to permit all the refugees to enter Palestine legally. The offer came just before the expiration of the ultimatum set by the refugees, who had threatened last week that they would sail on Sunday with or without permission.
No decision on the British offer has yet been announced by the refugees. Until now they have consistently refused to divide their numbers under any circumstances and have insisted that they would sail as a group. A British embassy official in Rome today said that he could “see no reason why under the new proposal, the first 679 cannot wait until the middle of May so the entire group can leave for Palestine together.”
While the refugee leaders committee has not yet reached a decision, it is apparent that the new British offer is considered a major triumph for this handful of Jewish wanderers who have defied the combined authority of Italy, Britain, and the Allied Control Commission for almost four weeks.
After their 75-hour hunger strike, threats to blow up the ship, and mass suicide, it became increasingly clear during the last few days that theirs was a winning fight. This morning the Italian Government, through the Minister of the Navy, stated in writing that the departure of the Fede and the Elishu Golomb “depends not on Italian but on Allied authority.” Under such conditions it would be extremely awkward for the British to order the Italian destroyers to block the threatened sailing of the refugee ships. It would be even more embarrassing for the British to take direct action themselves with the great possibility that violence might occur. If the British proved unwilling to blockade the vessels or to order the Italian Government to do so, there would be no way of stopping the determined Jews from sailing–thereby destroying British authority and prestige.
FOUR ITALIANS, ONE JEW STILL UNDER ARREST; THREE SERGEANTS IN JAIL
Should the refugees accept the British offer, the La Spezia case would still not be closed. Four Italians and a refugee Jew are now imprisoned in a Genoa jail, where they have been hold incommunicado for over three weeks by the Allied Field Security Service. No formal charges have yet been filed against the five who ware arrested in connection with the attempt by the Jews to sail for Palestine without the permission of the British Government.
The Italians are Renzo Bargiacchi, owner of the shipyard in which the Feds was reconditioned from a cargo ship to a passenger vessel; his son Giorgio, aged nineteen; Giuseppe Mousse, member of the Italian Committee for National Liberation; and Matteo Marenzana, Socialist leader of Genoa. They were originally arrested by the Italian police, who apprehended these on route to the Feds, but were released within 24 hours.
Directly after their release by the Italian police, they were summoned by the Allied authorities and interned at Genoa. Neither their lawyers nor their families have been permitted to see them. In addition three sergeants of the 179th Company of the Royal Army Service Corps of Palestine are being held at Caserta by the Field Security Service. According to eyewitness accounts, the three–Sgts. Zelinger, Freier, and Liubartowski–are handcuffed, even in jail.
The Field Security Service is the intelligence division of the Allied Military Government in Italy, whose responsibility is to guarantee the military security of the Allied Armed Forces. Unless attempts by Jews to enter Palestine without visas constitute a threat to Allied military security, it is not known on what basis the prisoners are being hold at Genoa. No official statement has been made concerning their case, and no date has been set for their trial or release.
Italian partisans, celebrating the first anniversary of the German defeat, visited the Fede and expressed their solidarity with the Jews. Italians are in evidence at the Fede’s pier at all hours, bringing food and talking with the detainees. Letters of sympathy from the Italian people continue to pour into the makeshift camp established on the ship.
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