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Ship Brings 675 Refugees from France to Dominican Republic

July 12, 1940
See Original Daily Bulletin From This Date
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One of the last trans-Atlantic ships to leave warring France, the S.S Cuba, has arrived here from Bordeaux with 675 refugees, most of whom have not yet been permitted to land because their documents are not adequate.

About 40 of the passengers are Jewish refugees, most of them Central Europeans, the others being largely Spaniards. All the passengers possess Dominican visas issued by the Dominican consul in Bordeaux which permit embarkation but not disembarkation. Their emigration was not arranged by any organization.

The Dominican authorities permitted 86 of the passengers to land because they have relatives here or are transients with valid visas. It was expected that more would be able to disembark after investigation. None of those who have landed are suitable for settlement in the Sosua colonization project.

Jewish and Christian organizations sent soap, cigarettes, tropical fruit and milk for the children to the passengers held on the ship. The date of the ship ‘ s departure and its destination are not known.

(French Line officials in New York said the line had an 11,000-ton passenger ship called the Cuba, formerly in regular service to Latin American ports, but had no information as to whether this was the same Cuba now docked at Ciudad Trujillo, since the New York office is not in contact with France.)

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