4500 PEOPLE IN 700-TON SHIP

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXV, Issue 14430, 31 July 1947, Page 3

4500 PEOPLE IN 700-TON SHIP

JEWISH BID FOR PALESTINE ' ffeff Light On President Warfield Inside Story Of Futile Voyage (Special to The Tiroes) / London, July 24. Three British transports, convey.w back to France 4500 Jewish ilia al transhipped at H ifa fr om the President Warfield, are now expected to qnter French waters at the week-end. These illegal immigrants are being to the country from which they had sailed in accordance with the recognised rule of International Law and in agreement with the French Government. The French Government, according to reports from Paris, has decided to grant a sanctuary to any of the 4500 who land in France, but not to compel any to disembark. British official quarters are not prepared to discuss what might be the sequel in the hypothetical event of a refusal to land. The latest information which has become available casts fresh light on; the reckless as well as the illegal character of the President Warfield’s voyage from Sete to Haifa. As is known, the President Warfield, a pre-war pleasure steamer of 706 net tons, was bought early this year by the Weston Trading Company of New York for “fruit trade,” Her navigation certificate was only valid for voyages in fine weather and without passengers. During the war she had been used by the British Navy on loan from the U.S.A. Navy as an accommodation ship, and then she was not held fit to accommodate more than 300 persons wheij lying at anchor in port. Victims of Fraud

None the less ,the President Warfield loaded 4500 passengers (nearly twice the. normal number'of passengers of the Queen Elizabeth) at Sele where she had arrived last month. The French port authorities, in view of her navigation certificate, refused to grant her clearance to sail and, in fact, tried to prevent her departure, but she escaped from port under cover of darkness during the night of July 10, and Without pilot. She ran aground on leaving the harbour but was successfully refloated and got away. Jewish passengers, as distinct from the ship, were apparently given clearance by the French authorities for Columbia. This was done on the production by the representative of a Jewish Child Welfare. Organisation of a letter allied to come from the Colofnbian Consulate General, in Marseilles, uud stating that the Colombian visas would be granted. This letter has r® proved to be a forgery. The oipmbian Embassy in Paris has iss u*d a ‘categorical denial that, the “kged visas had been granted by consulate General in Marseilles 0r hy any other Colombian Consulate.

m, flus while her passengers may be garded as haying been the victims ra ud, the President Warfield’s I yage Sete was doubly 11-o^-Sh 0 sailed against the orders J 7 French port authorities and ® W3s engaged in an attempt to Passengers in Palestine withx a Permit.

oth « Steamers Watched Wera f *? nnage and seaworthiness tlif. r as gra vely to endanger Ves of t:h e fantastic number of M e Deers . s^e h a d on board. Wn!f W hile> P u hlic attention has Port aWn P resence in the Ba yonne of two other old Heu erS “Northlands,” 320 tons % P res ldent Wary the Western Trading Com--oJ’3ad “Paducah,” 622 tons net Ptov ai y ontrose Shipping Comthe p a 180 of New York, both flying of n, O amania n flag —in the case Itkf? hlands illegally. i are aw P. , leve d that these two ships k , - , an opportunity to emimmigrants and by tho n*° n * s a Ptly described ,<s foiilarlv a^ ci ! ester Guardian as a &ou s V L Utlle ’ illegal and danw y r gegers ***** anger to passenilleg al J™. the or ganisers of this lous 0 invariably show calfutile w ence ’ such voyages are are inevitably Majelj” f, alostine ™ters by Ws Navy. They are. il-

legal because passengers do not come -within the legal quota of Jewish immigrants allowed to land in Palestine. The legal quota is 1500 monthly, 750 permits being granted to approved displaced persons in Central Europe and 750 to internees in Cyrus. “Squaring the Circle” . This figure of 1500 monthly or 18,000 yearly may be compared with the annual average of 1500 Jewish entrants into Palestine over 26 years from 1921 to 1946 inclusive. Only in six yqars during that period was the 1800 figure exceeded, in 1925, 1933 to 1936 (following Hitler’s assumption of power) and in 1939. The annual figure of 1800 ..may also be compared with that of 12,000 to which ■ the Peel Commission in 1937 recommended Jewish immigration would be limited. The Peel Commission was generally regarded as adopting a favourable attitude towards Zionist aspirations. The figure, 1800 is derided as too low by Zionists who seek to circum- . vent it illegally. It is decried by Arabs as too high. Nothing could illustrate more eloquently, the fact the conflict in and over Palestine is a conflict between Arabs and Jews, with Jewish immigration as its crux. It is jiot a conflict between Jews and the British Government or , Arabs and the British Government. The British Government’s role as mandatory is, and has always been, to maintain law and order in Palestine, hold the balance between Arabs and Jews and to endeavour to square the circle of the dual obligation imposed by the mandate facilitating the establishment of a Jewish National, Home and safeguarding the rights and the interests of Arabs. -