Refugee Question Taken Up with Colonial Governors, Chamberlain Reveals

A statement on settlement of German Jews in the British Empire probably will be made next week, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain told the House of Commons today after announcing that the question had been taken up with colonial Governors.

Robert A. Cary, Conservative, asked whether Jewish refugees would be given facilities to settle in Tanganyika, and whether the Government had approached the Governments of the Union of South Africa and France with a view to obtaining similar privileges for Jews in Southwest Africa and the Cameroons.

“The possibility of settlement of refugees from Germany has been taken up with a number of colonial Governors, including the Governor of Tanganyika,” Chamberlain said. “The matter has been treated as one of urgency, and I hope to be able to make a statement at the beginning of next week. Regarding the latter part of the question I stated on Nov. 14 in reply to a similar question that the problem of emigration from Germany is before the Intergovernmental Committee set up by the Evian conference. The question of an approach to the Governments referred to by Mr. Cary is therefore a matter for consideration by the committee in the first instance.

The Prime Minister also announced that debate would take place on Monday on a motion introduced by Major Clement R. Attlee, opposition Labor leader, as follows:

“That this house notes with profound concern the deplorable treatment suffered by certain racial, religious, and political minorities in Europe, and in view of the growing gravity of the refugee problem, would welcome immediate concerted effort amongst the nations, including the United States, to secure a common policy.”

Chamberlain added that a general debate on the Palestine situation would take place next Thursday.

George Rublee, director of the Intergovernmental Refugee Bureau, conferred today with Lord Winterton, chairman, on the refugee situation and the forthcoming session of the bureau. Earlier this week Mr. Rublee conferred with Malcolm MacDonald, Colonial and Dominions Secretary, Sir John Shuckburgh, of the Colonial Office, and Lord Winterton regarding a canvass of the Empire’s settlement possibilities.

The date and the bureau meeting have not yet been definitely fixed. It is known, however, that Mr. Rublee will report fully on the status of proposed negotiations with Berlin on emigration, and also on negotiations with lands of settlement. The Nether. lands is expected to raise the question of a temporary European refuge for German Jews. Myron C. Taylor, American vice-chairman of the committee, is not expected to arrive in time for the meeting and American Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy will attend in his stead.

While prominent individuals and organizations continued to voice indignation at the Nazi pogroms, a new note was injected into the comment today by the Daily Express which declared editorially that they should not be permitted to interfere with Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s policy of appeasing the Reich. The Financial Times, however, san in the Nazi pogroms the suggestion that Germany “economically is in a desperate position” and expressed the view that “they have evidently placed most serious obstacles in the way of the policy of appeasement by which the Reich might have returned to the European concert.”

Viscount Cranborne, former Foreign Undersecretary, declared in a letter to the Daily Telegraph that Britain could not divest herself of responsibility for rescuing German Jewry. Sir Walter Womersley, Assistant Postmaster General, said in a statement on the pogroms: “If we have the patience to allow the German people time to work out their own salvation, I am convinced they will not stand for dictators many more years.” The Shipbuilding and Engineering Confederation, comprising 34 trade unions with 1,500,000 members, at a meeting in York, unanimously adopted a resolution expressing “horror and disgust” at the German Government’s conduct toward the Jews.