Prime Minister Churchill, reviewing the position of the Jewish and non-Jewish refugees admitted into Britain and Palestine since the outbreak of the war, emphasized today that “the resources of Britain are strained to the utmost to maintain the traditions of asylum and hospitality,” and announced that the British Government will not admit into Palestine more Jews than provided for under the White Paper.
“We are prepared to continue to admit Jewish children, accompanied by adults, to the limit permitted for the five-year period ending March 1944,” Churchill stated in the House of Commons. “This would be approximately 29,000 persons.”
The Prime Minister estimated that approximately 150,000 Jewish and non-Jewish refugees have entered the United Kingdom since the outbreak of the war. The government treasury, he said, spent about five million dollars on refugees from October, 1939 until December 1942.
Touching upon the entry of Jewish refugees into Palestine, Churchill said that more than 18,000 Jews entered Palestine legally from April 1939 until September 1942. The total number of immigrants who entered Palestine during that period, including illegal entrants, was estimated by Churchill to be 38,000. The majority of them, he declared, were Jews who escaped from Central and Eastern Europe. In addition, 858 Jewish refugee children and 369 adults reached Palestine from Persia on February 18 of this year, he reported.
The Palestine immigration quota for the three-month period ending last December 31, provided for the admission of 3,000 Jews, including 1,000 orphans and 200 adults from Vichy-France, Churchill said, adding that most of these visas were still available and that in addition, 500 children will be admitted from Hungary and Rumania, also 4,000 Jewish refugee children and 500 adults from Bulgaria. “The necessary negotiations for the release and transportation of the latter are now taking place through a protecting power,” he announced.
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.
