Refugee Problem Brings Reich Race Policy into Open at Geneva Session

The question of Nazi treatment of the Jews in the Reich may arise at the meeting of the Assembly of the League of Nations, it was learned here today. The question may be brought to the fore next week in connection with negotiations now proceeding on the initiative of Holland, with France and Czechoslovakia, regarding the problem of caring for German-Jewish refugees.

The possibility is not excluded, however, that the Assembly will refrain from public debate on this question but will refer it, with a suggestion for its consideration to the sixth League commission, which will meet soon.

The question, it is learned, would be raised through the inquiry of Germany by Holland, with France and Czechoslovakia supporting the Dutch, as to what are the Reich’s intentions regarding the making of Jewish emigration from Germany unnecessary since the refugees constitute a difficult and alarming problem for the countries adjacent to Germany.

The German reply to this query, in the opinion of League circles, will be that it is not necessary for German Jews to emigrate and that the Reich is prepared to readmit the refugees. Such an answer, it is expected, will not prove satisfactory to Holland and its supporters, and the question of rights for the Jews as a national minority within Germany may thus be brought up.

Sean Lester, of the Irish Free State, appointed rapporteur on the Upper Silesian question by the League of Nations Council last May, has not yet received a report from the German Government on what it has done to restore the rights of the Jews in the plebiscite area in accordance with the decision of the Council on the petition of Franz Bernheim, an Upper Silesian Jew.

Germany agreed at the time to rescind all anti-Jewish discriminations in Upper Silesia and to report to the League what measures it had taken to accomplish this. It is not expected that the German government will fail to keep its promise and the report is therefore expected within the next few days. It will be discussed by the Assembly’s sixth commission at a session on political problems.

Poland and Czechoslovakia, at this meeting of the commission, are expected to pose the question of treatment of the Jews within the Reich proper, considering it inconsistent with the German government’s guarantee of Jewish rights in Upper Silesia.

The commission will also discuss the Palestine question, in accordance with established procedure and in connection with the report presented to the last meeting of the Mandates Commission. In this discussion, it is understood that efforts will be made to introduce the possibility of extensive German-Jewish settlement in Palestine as an aid in the realization of the Jewish National Home there.

An independent report on the position of the Jews in Upper Silesia has been received by Mr. Lester. The nature of this report has not been disclosed. The charge of the Manchester Guardian, leading British liberal newspaper, that restoration of Jewish rights in the plebiscite area has been more of a theoretical nature than practical and that Jews there are as badly off as in the Reich have been widely commented on here.