To Resume Talks with Economics Ministry Official

Following a conference with Field Marshal Goering, Mr. Rublee announced yesterday that he is returning to Berlin early next week to resume the Jewish emigration talks which had been interrupted by the dismissal of Dr. Schacht. Characterizing the talk with Goering as “friendly and helpful,” Mr. Rublee declared the negotiations would be resumed

with Ministerial Director Helmuth Wohlthat, who has been authorized to succeed Dr. Schacht as the Reich representative. Mr. Wohlthat is director of the foreign exchange department of the Ministry of Economics.

Mr. Rublee and his associates, Robert Pell and Joseph Cotton, left for Paris last night for conferences today and Monday with officers of the Intergovernmental Committee.It is not yet known whether, upon their return, they will be able to resume the talks at the point where they were suddenly broken off Friday, or whether they will have to retrace the ground already covered.

There seems to be a possibility that the full session of the Intergovernmental Committee, scheduled for Jan, 26 in London, might be postponed to permit Mr. Rublee to return for the negotiations. This will be discussed by the officers at the Paris meeting Monday. No doubt the decision will be influenced by the Nazi attitude toward the work already accomplished. Should Dr. Schacht’s successor be empowered to continue from where the discussions had left off, it is likely that the Rublee mission will not need to spend more than a day or two here to clarify the final details. If, however, the new Reich representative is ordered to start afresh, a second Rublee visit, if made at all, under the circumstances will necessarily be protracted.

The Goering-Rublee talk came shortly after the Reich authorities, in a reversal of attitude as sudden as that which broke off the negotiations, indicated that the way was still open for resumption of the talks. The Reich hint that the suddenly slammed door would be reopened was communicated to the Rublee mission by the American Embassy which, jointly with the British Embassy had Friday night questioned the Reich Foreign Office on the possibility of continuing the negotiations. At the time, the demarche had seemed a forlorn hope. The response was interpreted as “very promising.”

At the time the negotiations between Mr. Rublee and Dr. Schacht had been abruptly ended, the Rublee mission had in its hands a plan for emigration of Jews which represented a considerable modification of the original Schacht proposal for riding the Jews out of Germany on increased Reich exports. The new plan, which had been on the verge of attaining final form, reportedly called for creation of additional Reich exports amounting to 45,000,000 marks yearly. It was also said to guarantee livable conditions for the Reich Jews pending their emigration, to bar creation of a ghetto and to provide training for emigration.