JEWS OFF PORT DE BOUC

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25270, 23 August 1947, Page 9

JEWS OFF PORT DE BOUC

Refusal To Land In France

BRITAIN ISSUES ULTIMATUM (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) • (Rec. 11.40 p.m.) LONDON, Aug. 22. “The Jewish refugees aboard the Empire Vigour, one of the three British ships off Port de Bouc, have refused the British ultimatum to land in France or be sent to Germany," says the Paris correspondent of Reuters.

“Officials gave the Jewish leaders permission to take a vote on the Ocean Vigour. Half an hour later a Polish spokesman said in German: ‘We have taken a vote and decided not to disembark.’ ”

The Foreign Office yesterday announced that the Government had decided that unless the 4400 Jews aboard the transports began to disembark before 5 plm., G.M.T., to-day, the ships would sail for the British zone of Germany, where the Jews would immediately be disembarked. This is the only territory under British jurisdiction outside Cyprus where such a large number of people can be adequately housed and fed at short notice. “The British Government is satisfied that the Jewish, Agency has sufficient influence to persuade the illegal immigrants to land in France,” said the Foreign Office. “The British Government will offer every facility within its power if the Jewish Agency is prepared to send a representative to Port de Bouc to appeal to the migrants.” Jewish Reaction A representative in London of the Jewish Agency called at the Colonial Office and formally refused to adoit the British suggestion that the agency send an envoy to Port de Bouc to urge the Jews to disembark in France.

Mr Berl Locker, a member of the executive of the Jewish Agency, said that the agency would “never, even under so cruel a threat, lend itself to attempt to prevent Jews altering their national home.” He added that no doubt force would be used to disembark these people. He dreaded to imagine what would be the result. Mr Locker appealed to the British Government to hold its hand. Mr Locker told journalists later that he had heard that British officials had boarded one ship and read the Government’s decision. They were answered by unanimous cries of ‘‘We are not disembarking!” In Palestine the military police are preparing for trouble. This is expected when the Jewish Agency issues a reply to the British decision. The agency’s executive is in full session and it is expected to make a bitter ana hostile reply. The Jews fear that it will be impossible to prevent retaliatory action by the Haganah. and trouble is expected among the Stern Gang and the Irgun Zvai Leumi extremists.

Day of Fast Ordered The Rabbinates’ Council has ordered a world-wide fast on August 25 in protest against the British Government’s decision. The Hebrew Liberation Committee in Paris has issued a statement that it is confident “that should the Nazi British threat be carried out Hebrews in Palestine and elsewhere will rise to the call of the Irgun Zvai Leumi and battle for the liberation of our country and nation.” A spokesman of the International Refugee Organisation m Hamburg said that the Jews would be sent to a displaced persons’ camp if they were disembarked in the British zone. Over 10,000 of the zone’s 11,000 Jewish displaced persons live in this camp. “It is important to understand exactly why the British Government has decided to send the Jews at Port de Bouc to Germany if they refuge to land in France,” says “The Times’’ in a leading article. “Sympathy may be felt for the Jews who have voyaged across Europe and the Mediterranean only to find themselves turned back on the very coast of the Promised Land, but quite other •sentiments will be entertained for those who have impelled and organised this painful and haphazard emigration. Their game is abundantly clear, and is made clearer still by the frenzied threats of riot and revenge thrown out by the agents of Jewish terrorism sheltering in Paris under the pompous and absurd title of a ‘Hebrew Liberation Committee.’ “Moral Blackmail” by Jews “Determined at whatever cost In suffering of others to explpit the bitter situation in Palestine, and embarrass the British Government, these organisers have deliberately encouraged large numbers of Jews from many parts of Europe to try to evade the law and enter Palestine in spite of the quota.

“They have had no scruples in the use of bribery and corruption, and few for the safety and well-being of the emigrants. The ships they have chartered may founder or leak, food may go short, disease may break out; nothing matters but that the emigrants should be sent to certain interception by British patrols. “It goes without saying that this attempt at moral blackmail has failed and will continue to fail.

“The Jewish Agency’s reiterated refusal to use its influence in persuading the emigrants at Port de Bouc to land in France is evidence of a weakness and irresponsibility deeply to be regretted. “Britain has upheld the Jewish cause with the constancy and courage of a good conscience, but they will resist a manoeuvre to make political capital, whether by terror or any other method from the wretchedness of people who have already suffered far too much.”