REFUGEES FROM EUROPE

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22805, 2 September 1939, Page 13

REFUGEES FROM EUROPE

Member Asks For . Assurance “CARE TAKEN TO SECURE RIGHT TYPE” ITrom Our Parliamentary ReporterJ WELLINGTON, September 1. : An assurance that the Jewish refugees from Europe being admitted to New Zealand were of a suitable type was sought by Mr W. J. Poison (Opposition, Stratford), during consideration of the estimates for the Department of Customs in the House of Representatives to-day. ; “I am informed on . very excellent authority that a number of people of Jewish extraction from the-.ghettos of Europe, who are coming in here, are not of a type that will make good citizens of this country,” Mr Poison-said. He added that he did riot mean to convey any criticism whatever of. the Jewish race, but he asked the Minister in Charge of Customs, the Hon. H. G. R. Mason, for an assurance that the right type of refugee was being admitted.

The Minister described, the various steps associated with the admission of foreign people into New Zealand, and said that the method adopted had been for the Minister to make the final decision in each case separately. “With regard to the suggestion that the: type of Jews has been unsatisfactory, I do know that very great care has been taken and nothing of the kind has come under my notice,” Mr Mason said. “The number admitted is not so great that there can be many who turn out to be unsatisfactory. The care taken is such that one would expect very, few people to be admitted whose admission one would regret.”