If the United States Government would stand behind its traditional policy of supporting Jewish aims in Palestine the problem of the Jewish DP’s in Europe would be licked, Rep. Jacob K. Javits, Republican of New York, declared at a press conference here today.
Javits, who returned from Europe yesterday after touring seven countries in Europe as a member of a sub-committee studying the International Refugee Organization, asserted that if the Jewish DP problem were solved it would break the “log-jam” and make for an easier solution of the problem of all DP’s. He added that resettlement in Europe would not completely do away with the need for camps, but that “a bolder approach was needed.”
Speaking of the I.R.O., the Congressman said that it was planning on a temporary basis. He said that its administrative head, William H. Tuck, who is also the American representative, was planning only a three-year program, and that he had told Javits he was confident that the DP problem would be solved by then. Javits pointed out that the I.R.O. had been forced to retrench in various fields of welfare work which had been maintained by its predecessor, the UNRRA, because of an extreme shortage of funds.
The Congressman also threw his support behind the Stration Bill to admit 400,000 DP’s of all faiths to the U.S. within four years. He insisted that only Britain, France and Belgium now have any type of program for admitting DP immigrants, adding that their programs were limited to persons possessing specific skills and would not solve the general problem. He expressed particular concern for the welfare of DP children, pointing out that he and New York Sen. Irving M. Ives had introduced a bill to admit unaccompanied DP children who were adopted by American citizens.
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.
