United States and Britain Split at U.N. over Aiding German and Austrian Jews

Britain and the United States have split over the question of extending aid to the German and Austrian Jews in Germany and Austria, with the United States favoring a more liberal interpretation of the definition of “refugees” to include these Jews. The split occurred yesterday at the first meeting of the U.N. Social and Economic Council devoted to discussion of the report of the special committee on refugees and displaced persons.

British delegate Sir George Randel reiterated the arguments he presented several weeks ago at the special refugee committee’s deliberations in London, namely, that to include Jews residing in their country of origin in the category of “refugees” would be to establish distinctions based on race and religion. George Warren, U.S. State Department advisor, admitted that this would be an “exception,” but asserted that “we can well afford to err on the side of generosity and justice.”

Sir Herbert Emerson, chairman of the Intergovernmental Refugee Committee, proposed a compromise plan which would offer aid to those victims of persecution who wanted to leave Austria and Germany. He declared that to include all Jews in the two countries under the proposed new refugee organization would set them up as a “privileged class” and would be “against their beat interests.”