The refugee settlement in the Dominican Republic may ultimately aid the United States in obtaining essential products for which it now depends on the Orient, James N. Rosenberg, president of the Dominican Republic Settlement Association, stated today as he left on the S.S. Coamo, with other members of the American delegation, for ceremonies in the Caribbean republic marking the first anniversary of the agreement for refugee colonization at Sosua.
Rosenberg praised the “magnificent cooperation” of President Roosevelt and other Government officials. “Dr. Atherton Lee, director of the United States Agricultural Experimentation Station at Puerto Rico, leading authority on tropical agriculture, has already aided us greatly toward the introduction of new crops of importance in the economic upbuilding not only of the settlement but of the Dominican Republic and aiding, we hope, the United States in obtaining essential products for which our country now depends on the Orient,” Rosenberg said.
“I should like to stress,” he added, “that we are not viewing this undertaking merely as an effort to save a handful of victims of Nazi oppression. Our objective is far greater. It is to demonstrate in this activity–so far only a test-tube experiment–that the right kind of hard-working, husky pioneers can come to the Western Hemisphere and can, in subtropical zones, produce things of benefit to the economy of their country and the United States.”
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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.
