Refugee Aid Group Holds Talks with Berlin, Rome on Ethiopia Colonization

German and Italian officials are negotiating with the Frank van Gildemeester organization, created to supervise the emigration of Austrian Jews, for establishment of thousands of refugees in Ethiopia, it was learned here tonight.

After prolonged negotiations with Reich authorities a committee of five experts headed by Hermann Fuernberg will go to Rome during the next few days and then to Ethiopia to make final arrangements. The committee will remain in Ethiopia until the end of September, visiting several locations which have been picked as possible sites for model villages to be constructed by refugees.

Prospective emigrants have expressed a willingness to go to Ethiopia on condition that they be permitted to settle in the fertile highlands bordering Lake Tana. The Italian Government has offered them land some distance south of the Lake, however, and the forthcoming conversations at Rome are expected to deal with this point.

A staff of engineers and technicians employed by the Gildemeester organization have worked out complete details of five model villages, accommodating about 15,000 emigrants. It is hoped to have work on these villages started by next June. The plans for the villages include a central plaza with a synagogue on one side and a Catholic church on the other. It was explained that the church will be for the many Jews who have been converted during the past few years.

It has been estimated that Ethiopia can accommodate about 5,000,000 more people. In the Lake Tana region alone a vast territory of about 50,000 square miles virtually is uninhabited. The land is believed suitable for growing wheat, coffee and numerous tropical fruits and grains.