Jews Will Be Associated with Refugee Committee Formed at Bermuda, Says Cranborne

Jews will be associated with the new intergovernmental refugee committee which is being established as a result of the Bermuda Conference, it was stated in the House of Lords today by Viscount Cranborne, Lord Privy Seal, during a debate on the refugee question. Lord Cranborne did not indicate whether his statement meant that official representatives of Jewish refugee relief organizations would be invited to work with the committee.

Substantial progress in aiding persons fleeing Axis Europe has been made since the conclusion of the Bermuda Conference, he said, but stressed that the defeat of the totalitarian powers is the only adequate refugee policy.

Replying to Lord Davies who demanded that the government denounce anti-Semitism and racial hatred and take steps to admit more refugees, Cranborne declared that the government “would not relax its efforts, within the limits imposed by the highest policy, to give shelter to those endangered by persecution and death.” Through the efforts of the British Government hundreds of thousands of persons have been saved from extinction, he continued, and “the government is not ashamed of its policy.”