More than 20,000 visaless Jewish refugees have reached the shores of Palestine since the end of the war in Europe on boats of the “Flotilla of Jewish Resistance,” and illegal immigration will not end as long as the White Paper restrictions continue, a spokesman for the Jewish Resistance Movement told American correspondents today.
The spokesman emphasized that the organizers of the underground transports were affiliated with the Haganah in Palestine, and had no connection with terrorist groups. He said that British intelligence knows that 21,878 Jews sailed for Palestine despite the British blockade, but it does not know how many ran the blockade successfully. He refused to reveal the latter figure.
The spokesman described the activities of Haganah agents who are operating throughout Europe as a modern version of the “Scarlet Pimpernel,” linking local refugee group leaders in various countries into an organized underground railroad, which takes refugees across borders and across seas on the frequently perilous voyage to Palestine.
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