Relief needs among refugees in Europe are steadily increasing and the United States is looked to as the major source of help, according to reports brought here by Dr. Joseph Schwartz, European chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee, who arrived from Lisbon by clipper yesterday.
Dr. Schwartz stressed that within the enemy lines work was still being carried on to get refugees across the borders. Committees of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee formed before the war began are still secretly functioning, he said. He stated that an average of 150 persons escape daily from France over the Pyrenees, and that the attitude of Spanish authorities had relaxed apparently because of sympathy for France and because of a general “change of feeling” that he said swept through Spain after the occupation of North Africa by the Allies.
“Some refugees are interned or imprisoned.” he said. “But none are sent back to France. My latest information is that the Spanish have been releasing refugees of non-military age.” Dr. Schwartz said that there were 12,000 refugees in Spain and Portugal who could be removed if asylum could be found for them.
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