The League of Nations Council, which opened its 102nd session today, will submit to the assembly, opening next Monday, a proposal to supplement President Roosevelt’s efforts in behalf of refugees by establishing a committee of governments interested in refugees under league auspices.
The plan has been communicated to the United States Government as a matter of “information.” Joseph C. Avenol, League Secretary General, said in a statement that another intergovernmental committee was necessary because the intergovernmental refugee Committee established by the Evian conference was concerned only with German refugees. Although cooperation between the Evian committee and the League would be of the highest value, “it will be for the assembly to decide this point,” he said.
At the same time the secretariat sent to the United States Government a plan of the League’s Commission on International Refugee Assistance recommending the merging of the Nansen Office for “stateless” refugees and the office of the High Commissioner for German Refugees into a single institution under the League’s aegis with a budget of 195,000 Swiss francs for 1939. The secretariat stated that there were not more than 35,000 German refugees in Europe, not including Austrians, and that 300,000 persons held Nansen passports.
The Liaison Committee of the High Commission for Refugees will meet here Sep. 14 and 15, it was announced today, to discuss with high commissioner sir Neill Malcolm the question of assistance for refugees and the future relations between the committee and the new refugees organization to be created by the league.
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