Late Berlin News

The American and British Embassies early this evening jointly asked the Reich Foreign Office whether or not the negotiations with George Rublee on Jewish emigration will be continued despite the removal of Dr. Hjalmar Schacht as president of the Reichsbank. No immediate reply was received.

The joint demarche pointed out that the negotiations had been broken off at the very point when tangible results were expected. The Foreign Office was also reminded that Mr. Rublee is due in Paris for a meeting of officers of the Intergovernmental Committee on Monday and must leave Berlin on Saturday evening. Thus, it was pointed out, if anything is to be done before the January meeting of the full committee in London, it must be done within the next 24 hours.

The dismissal of Dr. Schacht at a critical point in the negotiations was understood to be intended to put the Rublee mission in an embarrassing position since it was made with full knowledge that the delegation had only a few more hours in Berlin. Despite this, the Nazis acted without thought of Jewish hopes or the ordinary courtesy to foreign delegations.

At the same time, the official news agency hinted obliquely that Dr. Schacht might continue the negotiations by pointing out that he had negotiated with Mr. Rublee during the past week and that although he had left his post as Reichsbank president, Chancellor Hitler has authorized him, as Minister Without Portfolio, to continue with “new tasks.”While hesitant to accept the full implications of the news agency statement, neutral observers said that, from the Jewish viewpoint, things did not look as dark as they did earlier in the day.