The French Government has offered to release temporarily any of the 15,000 refugees interned in Camp de Gurs for whom 1,200 francs monthly maintenance is provided, pending preparations for emigration, it was learned today.
The offer was made by Ambassador Gaston Henry-Haye in reply to a memorandum submitted by the Rev. Dr. Henry Smith Leiper, president, and Boris Gourevitch, vice-president of the Union for the Protection of the Human Person, which has headquarters in New York.
Camp de Gurs, situated in the Lower Pyrenees, is the largest of the French internment centers for refugees. The internees are reported in a desperate plight as a result of inadequate sanitary facilities, shortage of food and clothing.
The release will be on condition that 1,200 frances monthly be provided by “the American associations or persons taking an interest in the fate of the refugees in question,” it was said, and will be of a temporary character, “to facilitate the emigration of the refugees.”
It was stated that 200,000,000 francs annually would be required to obtain the release of all 15,000 internees.
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