Responding to President Roosevelt’s appeal to “clear the decks” of the 200,000 to 300,000 pre-war refugees, officers of the Intergovernmental Refugee Committee, meeting today at the State Department, decided immediately to launch colonization in the Philippine Islands and the Dominican Republic with “token groups of refugee pioneers” residing in European neutral countries.
After thus embarking on what President Roosevelt called the “short-range” program, the committee adjourned until Oct. 26, when it will reconvene in Washington to discuss the President’s proposal to expand the intergovernmental body’s work to seek new territories for the ten to twenty million refugees Mr. Roosevelt estimated would be created by the war.
The President’s proposal to expand the committee’s scope so vastly came as a distinct surprise to the foreign delegates–Chairman Lord Winterton and Director Sir Herbert Emerson of Britain and the French, Argentine, Brazilian and Netherlands diplomatic representatives–who immediately cabled to their governments for further instructions.
At the third session today, the delegates decided that the most pressing need of the moment, and the one most easily alleviated, was the relief of some 60,000 refugees who have found temporary havens in Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium and the Scandinavian countries. The condition of these refugees was described as “desperate and urgent” and it was decided that they would be given priority in the location of permanent homelands.
The refugees in these neutral countries are not allowed to work and many of them are approaching starvation, the committee was told. Local relief agencies have been called upon to care for their own countrymen and the plight of the 60,000 is growing steadily worse. The Swiss minister, Marc Peter, appeared before the conference and painted a dark picture of the plight of the refugees in Switzerland, asking that something be done to help them at once.
The committee decided to transport as many of the refugees as possible from the neutral nations to other havens through infiltration and settlement projects. Smal “token groups” will be received form each of these nations and transported to the Philippines and the Dominican Republic.
These projects will be financed by funds from private organizations and individuals in the United States. The funds are now available, but the names of the contributors were withheld. Engineers, health experts and builders are already proceeding to the two territories to prepare for the reception of the first refugees.
Negotiations will also be begun immediately regarding settlement in other lands, the committee agreed. While the names of these countries where colonists would be accepted were not announced, it is known that under consideration are British and Dutch Guiana and Brazil.
Colonization schemes for Alaska are not viewed as of practical value at the moment, for under existing laws persons entering Alaska must do so under United States immigration quotas.
The British and French delegates emphasized that the condition of the refugees in these two belligerent nations was better than that of the exiles in the neutral states. The refugees have not become a burden, largely because so many of them have volunteered for war tasks, it was said. Others are being cared for by private funds, a large proportion of which are contributed by American groups.
At the close of today’s two-hour session, Lord Winterton, Emerson and American Vice-Chairman Myron C. Taylor left for New York, where they will confer with private groups which have contributed toward the Philippine and Dominican colonization projects.
Paul van Zeeland, president of the Coordinating Foundation, who is concerned in the discussions about colonization, failed to reach Washington in time for the first sessions of the conference. He is aboard the United States liner President Harding, which has been battered by a storm at sea resulting in a number of injuries. The ship is due in New York on Saturday, and van Zeeland should be able to attend next week’s sessions.
After the conference ends next week, Taylor will make a personal report on its progress to President Roosevelt, it was announced.
During the recess of the conference, technical advisors for the British Government and the State Department will remain in Washington working out details of the Dominican and Philippine settlement plans.
At yesterday’s session, Secretary of State Cordell Hull delivered an address of greeting stressing the importance of solving the refugee problem, Lord Winterton mentioned the difficulties in contributing to refugee work which confront the belligerent countries, Emerson reported on the committee’s work and James G. McDonald, chairman of the President’s Advisory Committee on Political Refugees, reported on the Philipine and Dominican projects
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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.
