The Bulgarian Government has agreed to permit 4,000 Jewish children and 500 adults to emigrate to Palestine, as a result of successful negotiations by the British Government, which was represented by a neutral nation, it was reported in the House of Commons today by Colonial Secretary Col. Oliver Stanley.
The children and their escorts will be permitted to travel in transit through Turkey. Col. Stanley indicated. Transportation for the group has already been arranged, although it involves great practical difficulties,” he said.
The British Government has also decided to admit into Palestine 500 Jewish children from Rumania and Hungary, instead of only 270 as previously announced, the Colonial Minister informed Commons. (A cable from Palestine to the JTA today stated that 72 Jewish children have already left Hungary for Palestine and that 22 Jewish children from Hungary have arrived there recently.)
The Palestine Government, Col. Stanley revealed, is prepared to admit more children and also a number of adults, within the limits of the White Paper under which approximately 29,000 Jews can still enter Palestine, and has even provided available transportation facilities to this end. He warned, however, that the difficulties in securing transportation as well as in providing sustenance in Palestine might limit the number of immigrants that can be admitted.
Asked whey more Jewish adults were not being taken from Nazi-dominated countries to Palestine, Col. Stanley emphasized that the Jewish Agency demanded that the children be saved first.
EDEN DENIES THAT ENGLAND REFUSED ADMISSION TO CHILDREN FROM FRANCE
Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden, in a statement in the House of Commons today denied that the British Government had refused visas to 2,000 Jewish children in France, who were recently deported to Germany.
“The Vichy Government,” he said, “at first refused to permit any Jewish children to leave France. Subsequently, it permitted 500 children to emigrate to the United States, but did not agree to take advantage of thousands of other visas which were offered for the United Kingdom, the Dominions and Palestine. After Germany’s entry into the unoccupied part of France, the departure of the 500 Jewish children to the United States was stopped.”
“I wish to emphasize that at the time when His Majesty’s Government had made application for Jewish children in France to come to the United Kingdom, more visas for other countries were available than children who were permitted to leave France.” Eden concluded.
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.
