A Home Security Ministry spokesman told the House of Commons today that the British Government was undecided on the “ultimate disposal” of adult refugees in the country.
Miss Ellen Wilkinson (Laborite M. P.,) Parliamentary secretary in the Security Ministry, said in reply to a question that of the total of 277,169 refugees over the age of sixteen, 124,804 had been permitted to enter on condition they left by a date set by the Home Secretary.
“Their ultimate disposal,” she explained, “is a matter of grave concern to the government. We do not want them to feel they are going to be thrown out immediately after the cease-fire. But it is impossible for the Home Secretary to commit himself now, because nobody knows what the situation will be then.”
Rhys Davies, the questioner, declared: “We shouldn’t like the government, having given asylum to these poor people, to repatriate them immediately after the war to a country where they are likely to be put in concentration camps again.”
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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.
