Dr. August Lindt, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, described today as “terrible” the fact that there was in European refugee camps a third generation of refugees.
Speaking at an assembly for CORRA, the Combined Overseas Rehabilitation and Refugee Appeal, in the Hall of the Royal College of Surgeons, he asserted that the “misconception that a refugee was “charity” should be fought. He said there were refugees who had changed the outlook of their host countries in many respects, both economically and culturally.
To accept refugees is “a lesson and not a burden,” he declared and cited one country, in an apparent reference to Rumania, where people had packed, surrendered their jobs, homes and everything and now were prevented from leaving. He said they, too, were in dire need of assistance.
The Marquess of Reading opened the address, and the Marquess of Landsdowne told the audience that the British Government had not been slow or niggardly in its refugee work. He reported that 80, 000 refugees, mainly of Jewish origin, had come to Britain from Germany before the war, then 200, 000 from Poland and 22, 000 more came in 1956.
The Baroness Elliot of Harwood, said the principal fund-raisers were the voluntary organizations and that she felt that they would not disappoint Dr. Lindt in raising funds for CORRA. Chief Rabbi Israel Brodie, in thanking Dr. Lindt, said that the Jewish people’s “wonderful generosity and ready responsibility” was not only for Jewish sufferers but “for all people who are suffering at the present time. “
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