Return of Refugees to Native Lands Recommended by Intergovernmental Committee

The voluntary return of refugees to their old homes would be the best solution of the refugee problem, the Intergovernmental Refugee Committee was told by director Sir Herbert Emerson as it opened its fourth plenary session here today.

Representatives of 34 nations were present for the opening meeting, including Ambassador John G. Winant for the United States. Also present were observers for the Red Cross, the International Labor Office, Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Forces, the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, and representatives of voluntary relief organizations.

In his opening report, Sir Herbert said the committee was faced with the problem not only of returning refugees to their homes but of finding new homes for those unable to return. He emphasized that the Intergovernmental Committee, which was organized at Evian, France, in 1938, coverd a field distinct from that of the UNRRA, since the latter was temporary, did not contemplate finding homes for refugees and would not operate everywhere.

Sir Herbert praised the “humanitarian action” taken by Sweden and Switzerland in aiding refugees but said they would not be able to absorb into their economic life all the refugees who had entered their countries. He revealed that the committee was in contact with the British and American governments on the problem of aiding Hungarian Jews and would ask member nations to help both by providing temporary and permanent homes and making financial contributions.

PROJECT TO SETTLE 100,000 JEWS IN DOMINICAN REPUBLIC TO BE REVIVED

Sir Herbert disclosed that the pre-war plan to settle 100,000 Jewish refugees from Europe in the Dominican Republic may be revived after the war. He reported that the Intergovernmental Committee is in contact with the governments of Britain and of the United States with regard to the proposed emigration of Jews from Hungary, and said that the Committee intends to ask these governments both for temporary and permanent homes for the Hungarian Jews as well as for financial aid for their emigration.

The representative of the Mexican Government announced at the session that he had urged his government to grant visas for Hungarian Jewish children and their parents. The representative of the Polish Government reviewed the tragedy of the Jews in Poland and reproached the Intergovernmental Committee for not helping those Jews who could have been saved in the French city of Vittel prior to their deportation by the Germans to occupied Poland for extermination in gas chambers.

The plenary session of the Intergovernmental Committee, as it meets now, includes representatives from Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Eire, France, Greece, Haiti, Honduras, Iceland, India, Luxemburg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, U.S.S.R., United Kingdom, United States and Venezuela.

It was emphasized at the session today that the Intergovernmental Committee attaches particular importance to the expected cooperation of various governments in alleviating the refugee problem. A resolution to this effect has been prepared by the Committee’s executive.