Despite Italy’s negative attitude thus far, strenuous efforts are continuing to be made to obtain transit through Italy for some 325 Jews of the Greater Reich who have immigration visas for the Dominican Republic and are scheduled to sail from Genoa, it was learned today.
Leading in these efforts are the State Department, the Dominican Republic Settlement Association, headed by James N. Rosenberg of New York: Andres Pastoriza, Dominican Minister in Washington, and General Rafael L. Trujillo, ex-president of the Dominican Republic.
There are 45 refugees already at Genoa waiting to sail. In addition, there are approximately 176 in various other places, mainly in the Reich and Czechoslovakia who have immigration visas to join the Sosua colonization project and and another 150 with visas to enter San Domingo as non-colonists.
The refugees were originally scheduled to said on the Italian steam-ship Neptunia on May 24, but it now appears doubtful that the Neptunia will sail and efforts are concentrated on obtaining embarkation on the United States liner Manhattan on June 1 –provided that Italy remains neutral until then.
Italy recently stopped permitting entry of refugees for emigration overseas on the ground that her possible involvement in the war would leave her with refugees on her hands, An appeal to the Italian Foreign Office by the Dominican Minister in Rome earlier this week met with an unfavorable reply, but hope has not yet been abandoned.
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.
