Officials Want Refugee Immigrants to Land at Seaport Far from New York City

A number of U.S. Government officials have ###icated the desirability of landing refugee immigrants at a seaport far from New York City, it was revealed today at the annual convention of the National Conference Jewish Social Welfare meeting here.In disclosing this, Joseph E. Beck, executive director of the United Service for New Americans, emphasized that “this means that the immigrants will have to be attributed rapidly throughout the land.” He estimated that some 27,000 to 30,000 ##ws will enter the United States annually for the next two years if the Fellows Bill ### passed.

“About 600,000 Jews now in Europe may eventually emigrate to the new Jewish ?ate of Israel,” Dr. Nathan Reich, research consultant of the Joint Distribution Committee, told the meeting.

“The first category of immigrants, in terms of urgency, which will receive ##op priority in resettlement,” Dr. Reich .declared, “comprises the 200,000-odd displaced Jews now in Germany, Italy and Cyprus. The second broad category comprises the approximately 800,000 Jews living in the countries stretching from the Baltic to the Lack Sea–Poland, Czechoslovakia, Rumania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia.

“In terms of objective conditions, the bull of the Jews in this area could, with continued aid and over a period of years, become re-established. However, the ##ast experiences of the Jews in this area; the latent, but deep-seated hostility on the part of substantial segments of national populations; the instinctive lack of faith in the future and the almost pathological fear that things that have happened In the past may happen again, are factors which combined produce the vide-spread desire to leave. Whether this desire to leave will actually harden into determination to leave, depends on the developments both in the Eastern European countries and in the new Jewish state,” he said.

The third category includes the Jews of Western Europe, the bulk of whom are of little importance as a source of emigration potential,” he said. Expressing the opinion that the establishment of Israel would have no immediate effect on the relief needs of the Jews in Europe, Dr. Reich stated that it might reduce the relief load on the Continent within the next few years. He said that any reduction in the coat of assisting the Jews of Europe might be offset by several major factors, including; l. The need for increased aid to Jews in Moslem countries; 2. The increased cost of services to Jews remaining in Europe, “who might constitute an older age group unable to care for its own needs.”