JEWS ON BRITISH TRANSPORTS

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25271, 25 August 1947, Page 7

JEWS ON BRITISH TRANSPORTS

Voyage To Hamburg Begun ACCOMMODATION IN CAMPS (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, August 22. The British transports at Port de Bouc. with 4400 Jewish refugees v ho refused to disembark in France on board, weighed anchor at 5.20 p.m. G.M.T. on Friday. It is reported that none of the Jews aboard the three ships disembarked. A British Foreign Office spokesman said that the Vessels would sail for Hamburg. The British Government had given the migrants till 6 p.m. to land in France, but for the second time since they arrived three weeks ago they refused. “The British Government has asked the French Government to receive back into France the Jews travelling by the ships from Tort de Bouc to Hamburg,” reports Reuters Paris correspondent. “They would be brought to Francetby a train from the British zone of Germany. A French Foreign Office spokesman said that the Cabinet would consider the British request next week.” Reuters correspondent aboard one of the ships, the Runnymede Park, in a dispatch date-lined “off the coast of Spain,” says the immigrants are calm and cheerful. They are eating well from the ship’s rations, augmented by fresh French supplier. Relations between the refugees ana the British troops are still friendly. Jews* Determination

Jews aboard the transports told journalists who were permitted to board the ships before their departure that they would not disembark in Germany or anywhere else except Palestine unless they were compelled to. The Jews’ spokesman paid a tribute to the behaviour of their British paratroop guards, but, as- the journalists’ launch left the Runnymede Park the Jews shouted cat-calls and anti-British slogans, while a group of young people waved a Union Jack on which a swastika had been daubed.

The Jews seemed to be in good health and they showed no marked signs of fatigue. Six sick Jews were brought ashore before the ships sailed, escorted by four British warships. Efforts to Prevent British Move

The Jewish Agency, in an effort to prevent the British Government from landing the illegal Jewish migrants at Hamburg, has applied for a writ to be heard on Wednesday. It calls on the British Government to produce six persons named in the writ—persons on board the Runnymede Park, the Empire Rival, and the Ocean Vigour.

The Jewish National Executive in Paris in a request to the United States. France, and Russia to take action to prevent the disembarking of the Jews in Germany, asked them to act through the Allied Control Commission for Germany to stop the Jews “being interned in new concentration camps in a country where Jewish people were the victims of the greatest tragedy in history.” The Vaad Leumi (the Jewish National Council) in Jerusalem has sent a cable to the Secretary-General of the United Nations (Mr Trygve Lie) requesting the intervention of the United Nations to prevent the shipment of the Jews to Germany.

A British Foreign Office spokesman said that the United States, Russia, and France would be quite within their rights in discussing at the Allied Control Council in Berlin Britain’s decision to send the Jews to Germany, but Britain would not be legally bound to accept even a majority view about the matter.

Two Camps Near Hamburg The British Embassy in Paris has announced that two camps near Hamburg will become the home of the Jews aboard the transports. British troops built one camp in 1945 to house liberated British prisoners of war,’ and the Germans built the second for French and Polish workers. It was stated in Paris that these two camps were the best centres of housing which could be found in Germany at present. All the British soldiers guarding the camps would be withdrawn as soon as the Jews’ identities were verified. In no case would use be made of German police. An appeal would be issued to Jewish relief organisations and the British Red Cross to increase the food rations for the camps’ new inmates and improve their material condition.

The New York “Post,” in a front page leading article, headed “Mr Attlee, this is too much,” attacks the shipping of Jews to Germany. The article urges President Truman and Congress to insist that any further loan to Britain be made contingent on the immediate admission of 100,000 Jews to Palestine and the immediate repeal of the law restricting the purchase of land by Jews in Palestine. “This is the only way we know of bringing to the attention of the decent British their betrayal by their officials,” says the article.