The State Department today informed the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that additional personnel has been sent to the U.S. Consulate in Shanghai, and that some have already reached their destination.
The State Department also instructed the consulate to save time in acting on the applications for transit visas by making the necessary verification as to the validity of the immigration visas with Latin American officials in Shanghai or by cabling directly to the respective governments of the countries to which the refugees are to be admitted. Up to now, the consulate referred the cases to the State Department for verification.
Revocation of visas granted to a number of Jewish refugees in Shanghai by several South American countries is partly responsible for the delay in the issuance of U.S. transit visas, a spokesman for the State Department declared. He revealed that at least one recipient of a visa for a South American country landed in the United States, only to discover that the government which issued the visa refused to honor it. The grounds for the refusal, and for other revocations of visas held by refugees still in Shanghai, are stated by the governments concerned to have been improper issuance in the first place.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
