Myron 0. Taylor, organizer and American vice-chairman of the Intergovernmental Refuges Committee, returned from Europe on the Queen Mary today and limited himself to this comment on the refugee situation: “We are making very good progress.”
Mr.Taylor will report to President Roosevelt on his six-month stay in Europe, and pending this report he declined to reply to a volley of questions fired at him by newspaper reporters. He said that his diplomatic status — he has the technical status of Ambassador — made it impossible for him to speak freely. Persistent questions about the results of his six-month mission, the effects of Germany’s occupation of Czecho-Slovakia and Memel on the refugee situation and the decree forcing emigration of Jews from Italy were thrust aside by the former steel executive good-naturedly but firmly.
Sholem Asch, the author, also arrived on the Queen Mary from a stay in Europe during which he attended the London conference on Palestine and witnessed the arrival in France of the first Jewish refugees from Italy after the March 12 expulsion deadline. The Palestine conference, Mr. Asch said, was a success insofar as it brought the goal of an Arab-Jewish understanding nearer. “The conference brought home to England and the Arabs that there can be no progress in Palestine without the cooperation of the Jews,” he declared. “Britain realizes it today and the Arabs will realize it tomorrow.”
The author intends to remain in the United States to complete his book on the life of Jesus Christ, which, he said, will occupy several months. Regarding his plans to go to Palestine he was indefinite, saying that this depended on the political situation and other circumstances.
Also on the Queen Mary was Rabbi Meir Berlin, honorary president of the World Mizrachi Organization, who will remain here until after the annual convention of the Mizrachi Organization of America, tentatively scheduled to open May 11, and then will return to Palestine. The purpose of his visit, he said, was “to acquaint Mizrachi people and other orthodox Jews with the situation in and around Eretz 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.
