The Polish Government must seek new territories for Jewish settlement because the British Government has reduced possibilities of immigration into Palestine, the Seum (lower house of Parliament) was advised today.
The average emigration of Jews between 1926 and 1936 was 18,000 annually, representing 60 per cent of the natural increase of Jewish population, Deputy Walewski, budget commission rapporteur, told the Sejm in a discussion of Foreign Ministry estimates.
Deputy Walewski quoted Dr. Tartakower, rapporteur of the World Jewish Congress in Geneva in 1936, as stating that more than 100,000 Jews could emigrate from Poland annually.
Deputy Emil Sommerstein declared that emigration was an economic and social problem and could not be regarded from the viewpoint of national and social groups. He said it was “not surprising that Jews regard the problem without enthusiasm since it is formulated as a compulsory mass emigration of Jews.”
If the Government wishes to solve the emigration problem, the Jewish deputy said, it is necessary first to solve the problem of the Jewish population at home. He pointed with satisfaction to statements by Foreign Minister Josef Beck and French Foreign Minister Yvon Delbos that emigration could not be considered from the ethnical viewpoint.
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