JEWS IN EUROPE

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24768, 8 January 1946, Page 5

JEWS IN EUROPE

Effect of Remarks By UNRRA Chief

RUSSIAN ORDER IN BERLIN

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) 7 2 FRANKFURT, Jan. 6. ine office of Lieutenant-General Sir Frederick Morgan (chief of UNRRA in Europe) stated that he had received a telephone call from London informing him that a letter was on the way directing him to report to London. Eailier an official spokesman, announcing that General Morgan had received no instruction to return, said that he was still determined not to resign. “General Morgan’s statement has done, more good than harm to the Jewish cause,” said a noted biologist and prominent member of the Zionist movement, Professor Sir, Almroth Wright, in a speech. There had previously been a conspiracy of silence, but now there was for the first time a declaration that the Jews in Europe had ideas of their own and did not intend to be bandied about from place to place at the whim of others. “The Government of Palestine is a disgrace to the British Empire,” he said. “It is a tyranny enforced from outside by hundreds of thousands of troops and has no support from asiy element of ’ the population, either Jew or Arab. It is against tyranny of this kind that the Jewish population is struggling for its freedom and independence.’’ “The German Municipal Council yesterday informed the Jewish community in Berlin that the Russians had decided to tell Polish Jew refugees in the Russian sector that they must leave Berlin to-morrow for a camp at Prenzlau, in the Soviet zone,” reports a correspondent. “The decision, for which no reasons were given, affects about half of the 4000 Polish Jew refugees in Berlin. “The leaders of the Jewish community are apparently surprised by this decision. They complain that the conditions at Prenzlau are unsatisfactory and that the Russians intend that the refugees should be sent back to Poland.

“The Jewish leaders state that, as a gesture of protest, Jews from two camps in the Russian zone will tomorrow enter the British and American sectors and have themselves arrested. The Russians will find these two camps empty. “It cannot be said that the Polish Jews in Berlin are in any desperate plight,” says the correspondent. “Many of General Morgan’s criticisms are justified. Most of the Jews are well dressed and appear well fed and healthy. Many admit that they have plenty of money. “It must also be conceded that Polish Jews, hoping to justify their action in leaving Poland and to pave their w r ay to Palestine and America, have tended to exaggerate the position in Poland, although recent impartial visiters to Poland report the existence of a definitely anti-Jewish tendency. “In the last six months more than 8000 Jews have arrived in Berlin from Poland. The rate of arrival has lately dropped, possibly because the news has reached Poland that Berlin is at present a dead end. The Jews believe the cause is stricter control by the Russians.”