Leaders of Jewish central bodies here who submitted memorandums to the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration urging increased relief for displaced Jews now still in various camps in liberated Europe, today learned with satisfaction of the decision at a secret session of the UNRRA conference yesterday to accept a British-sponsored proposal to give aid to refugees who decline to return to their homelands.
The proposal, accepted in principle only, was made following several days of debate on the question. Russia, Poland, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, through their delegates, have insisted that the UNRRA cease providing for such refugees as do not wish to be repatriated to their native lands. The United States and Britain took a different attitude.
Though the opposition to giving UNRRA aid to displaced persons who decline to return to their homeland was not directed primarily against Jewish refugees, many thousands of Polish and other Jews who prefer to remain stateless rather than to return to their former homes, are affected by it. The demand to deprive displaced persons of UNRRA aid was caused chiefly by the fact that many Poles who still support the former London Polish Government, as well as Russians who fought in the ranks of the German Army, insist on remaining stateless and refuse to be repatriated to their pre-war homes.
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