Berl Locker, a member of the Jewish Agency executive, who returned here today from London where he conferred with Dr. Chaim Weizmann, said today that Britain’s ban on the immigration of visaless Jews to Palestine will add to the suffering of the remaining Jews of Europe, but will “certainly not halt the stream” of immigrants.
“You cannot halt such a natural movement of men, women and children,” he told a press conference. “The press every day is full of reports of the grim plight of Jewry in internment camps and in Eastern Europe. Thousands are leaving to escape the intolerable misery and they are naturally attracted to Palestine, a country where they know hundreds of thousands of their brethren long to take them in to help them rebuild their lives,” Locker declared.
“The announcement by the British Government halting Jewish immigration to Palestine opens a new chapter in the Jewish tragedy. The British Government is taking upon itself a very grave responsibility in banning the entry of Jewish immigrants into Palestine,’ he added.
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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.