A hundred and fifty Jewish refugees at Panama, who several months ago were engaged by army officials for technical work on the canal, will be deported as a precautionary measure, it was learned here today.
The 150 will be placed on an army transport which will sail for Ellis Island on Sept. 17, reaching New York on Sept. 21. A Justice Department agent visited the Canal Zone, where the refugees have been confined on a prison island, and discovered that 90 of them had relatives who were United States citizens. These 90, after arriving at Ellis Island, will be sent to live with their relatives.
The remaining 60 will be offered a home in the Sosua colony by the Dominican Republic Settlement Association.
In some official quarters criticism was being voiced of the army’s drastic action against the refugees. Early in August the plight of Jewish refugees in Panama was brought to public attention when Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson announced that “80 foreign agents” had been arrested. These 80 were Jewish refugees working on the canal and are included in the 150 being sent to Ellis Island. It was later stated that they had erroneously been called “foreign agents.”
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.
