The Government and Refugees

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22767, 20 July 1939, Page 10

The Government and Refugees

The resolution passed by the Wellington Chamber of Commerce urging the Government to adopt a more liberal and farsighted attitude to the refugee problem is further evidence of a growing dissatisfaction with present methods of dealing with applications by refugees for admission to New Zealand. Until recently, public opinion has not asserted itself in this matter, mainly because the Government itself has preferred to give no information about its general attitude to the refugee problem or its method of dealing with applications for admission. In recent months, however, two things have stimulated public curiosity. One is a shortage of skilled labour so acute that the Government has been driven to the doubtful expedient of recruiting craftsmen in Australia and Great Britain. The other is a more widespread realisation of the desperate plight of the victims of racial and political persecution in Europe, a realisation which has aroused in many hundreds of New Zealanders the desire to make some personal contribution to the solution of the refugee problem. Thus, both self-interest and humanitarian feeling have impelled New Zealanders to seek information about their Government’s refugee policy; and ' f

the difficulty of obtaining this information has aroused -i justifiable suspicion that the whole problem is being dealt with reluctantly, unsystematically and illiberally. The -Government will not say how many refugees it has admitted, how many it proposes to admit, what general principles govern the sifting of applications, and what contacts exist with international refugee organisations. Instead, it issues vague assurances that it is doing its best and complains that its critics are ignorant of the facts —as indeed they must be. It is natural to suppose that this reticence cloaks inefficiency and apathy. If the Government’s record in its handling of the refugee problem were a creditable one, the public would have been kept fully informed. The truth seems to be that from the’first the Government’s refugee policy has been based on the mistaken assumption that any proposal to admit refugees in large numbers would antagonise more electors than it would please and that therefore safety lay in doing very little. But public opinion is now well ahead of official opinion. The appeals for a more liberal policy have come from a wide variety of interests, including chambers of commerce, trade unions, manufacturers organise tions, and churches. And it is quite clear that assurances unsupported by evidence will not suffice to silence criticism.