The European continent is fast moving towards becoming one of the greatest famine areas in modern history, it was declared today in a shipboard statement by Morris C. Troper, European director of the Joint Distribution Committee, who arrived on the Rex.
Troper came for a series of conferences with J.D.C. officials, to report on current conditions among refugees in Western Europe and the problems of war relief in Poland, and to take part in the opening of the New York campaign of the United Jewish Appeal. He has just completed a tour of most of the countries in Europe in which the J.D.C. conducts programs of assistance.
Troper, who was recently decorated by the French Government for his work among the refugees, said: “The European continent is fast moving towards becoming one of the greatest famine areas in modern history, with its concomitant effect upon the lives and future of hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women and children. Minority groups are the first and greatest sufferers. Large masses of the population especially in the occupied war areas in Eastern Europe are threatened with extinction on a scale heretofore unheard of and in a way which makes of the Black Hole of Calcutta a blessing.
“Lack of food, clothing, shelter, medical supplies are daily creating unparalleled misery beggaring description and unless help is brought on a really sizeable scale and quickly, these unfortunate people are doomed and may, in addition, in the course of their destruction, scatter sickness and epidemics to all quarters of the continent without possibility of control.
“Thousands upon thousands of children made homeless through the war with little or no hope of ever again rejoining their families must be cared for if we are not to have a recurrence of the wild children of the recent twenties. Lack of clothing and the restrictions against Jews purchasing them will soon result in men and women walking the streets in indescribable shabbiness, without stockings and without shoes, not to mention the countless thousands who in time–and that time is not far off–will not be able to cover their bodies sufficiently to make it possible for them to show themselves outside their dingy sleeping quarters.”
Discussing the conditions of refugees in Western Europe, Troper said: “In the refugee countries, some of which are at war, others neutral, but all mobilized and facing the prospect of being catapulted into war at any moment, the refugee committees are experiencing a gradual diminishing of local assistance while costs for feeding and housing refugees are continuously rising with the result that greater support must be found from governments and outside organizations. The various plans to move some of these refugees to places of permanent settlement have been interrupted through the outbreak of the war, but it is hoped that many of these plans will be revised so as to remove the tension in these countries.
“It is naturally most desirable and highly essential that Palestine continue to take its normal quota of these people and that something may be done to increase the legitimate possibilities in that direction to meet the crying need opened up by the whole Polish situation.
“To those who wish to be of assistance in this crisis, it is plain that only unprecedented generosity will enable even a minimal approach to the problem of refugees and war relief and it is to be hoped therefore that the United Jewish Appeal will be most successful in its present efforts.”
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