Plans for convocation of an inter-governmental conference to formulate an international convention governing the economic and social conditions of refugees from Germany, are being prepared by Sir Neill Malcolm, League of Nations High Commissioner for Refugees from Germany, he declared today to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
The new convention would supplement the provisional convention adopted by an inter-governmental conference at Geneva last July, fixing the juridical status of the refugees from Germany who had lost their citizenship.
The United States, which was represented at the conference in July by an official observer, will be invited to send a representative to the forthcoming conference.
The High Commissioner is also actively engaged in securing ratification by other countries to the July convention, which has already been signed and ratified by Great Britain, France, Belgium, Denmark and Norway.
Sir Neill will leave London early next month for a brief trip, during which he will confer with several European governments regarding ratification of the July arrangement and participation in the conference, which is now being organized.
“The immediate task,” Sir Neill said, “is to have as many countries as possible sign the provisional agreement and to prepare the ground for a convention which would be of a more permanent nature and will perhaps deal with the social and economic condition of the refugees, always acting with the framework of the League limits.”
The July arrangement provided for the issuance by the signatory Governments of identity certificates to German refugees who have lost their citizenship and are consequently without passports. These certificates are acceptable in lieu of passports. Under the terms of the convention, signatory Governments agree not to expel, holders of identity certificates, except for reasons of national security or public order and not to return them to Germany.
Refugees are also given the legal standing accorded foreigners possessing a nationality and access to courts of law.
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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.
