REFUGEES' HOME

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 21, 24 July 1940, Page 4

REFUGEES' HOME

DOMINICAN SCHEME

NEW EUROPEAN EXODUS

A TEST SETTLEMENT

Thirty-five young European refugees, first settlers of what is hoped will become a vast new dominion, recently left en route from Genoa, Italy, to the Sosua area of■ the Dominican Republic, where they will test themselves in a new mode of living and do the spade work for less hardy refugees who will join them later, say* a writer in the "Christian Science Monitor." They represent the pioneer contingent of an initial group of 509 colonists who have been selected to launch one of the most significant experiments yet undertaken in organised migration of refugees to the Nevr World.

A gift of 26,000 acres of sub-tropical soil awaits the pioneers as a result of negotiations by the President's Advisory Committee with the Dominican Republic, Dr. James Rosenberg, president of the Dominican Republic Settlement Association in New York, said. Recently incorporated under the laws of the State of New York, the association selected and trained the colonists, while agronomists, experienced in large-scale settlement on unoccupied land, surveyed and examined the territory.

If the undertaking succeeds, it is believed that 100,000 Europeans without a country will eventually maka homes for themselves in the colony. Experts of the Commission gave encouraging reports of the sparsely settled, rapidly developing Dominican Republic, whose Government balances its Budget and maintains friendly relations with the United States.

LEGAL AND ECONOMIC BIGHTS.

"From what I've .seen of the £reat progress in the Dominican Republic in the past ten years in schools, roads, irrigation, and bridge and harbour improvements, I am convinced that the settlers will not suffer and that they will have a just and equal opportunity to pursue their occupations and lives free from molestations and persecutions," Dr. Rosenberg said. The contract with the Dominican Government guaranteed the settlers full legal, civic, and economic rights and complete freedom and exempted them from all entry taxes, he added.

While many of the first colonists will come from Germany, others will be from refugee camps in JTorway, Sweden, and Holland, Dr. Rosenberg said.

"We know the immigrants can live satisfactorily," he continued. "The temperature is sub-tropical and soil conditions, generally speaking, are excellent, in some instances better than in the Ukraine, where 300,000 Jews were successfully settled between 1933 and 1936.

"The big question facing us is this: Can these new white people do the work before them? They must not hire native labour for their tasks. They must do 75 per cent, of the work themselves."

GIFT FROM FORMER PRESIDENT.

The land was a personal gift of General Raphael L. Trujillo, former President of the Dominican Republic. On a previous plantation of the: United Fruit Company, the settlement, association found 5000 acres cleared, with 17 good houses, running water, .electricity, and telephone facilities, a spokesman said.

Two gifts of £2000 and £1000 recently received by the association will be used to establish a refrigerating system and a research department.

Large-scale raising of cattle and th« cultivation of bananas, cocoa, and coffee will be conducted on a co-opera-tive basis. In addition, each family will have a plot of six to ten acres, with sheds for chickens and livestock, and space for cultivation of garden vegetables and tropical fruits for personal use.

Dr. Frederick 'Pelstein, agrpnomist, who has been named resident director of the colony, looks towards the development of a dairy industry and possible cultivation of early vegetables tos United States consumption, and of poultry for the Puerto Rican market^ as sources of income for the colony. One year will tell whether the Sosua colony is to succeed, officials of the association hold, and if it does, the Government has offered additional grants of fertile land along the Yasica Rivee in the Puerto Plata region. Dr. Rosen* berg voiced confidence that far-sighted men would come to the support of tha colony. HARD-WORKING CITIZENS. "It will contribute to the Republic hard-working people who, as has been the case with refugees in other countries over and over again, will develop new industries, an extension of agriculture and science, all for the good OB the country," he declared. A spokesman of the association held: that where many private settlements had failed in Latin America, those supported by philanthropic funds, unneedj ful of showing a quick dividend, naa flourished during the last fifty years. Large colonies in the Argentine aru* Brazil, founded by Jews in flight fjoni pogroms in Tsarist Russia, are studied today by those who are supervising the retraining of refugees for an agricultural life. One such group is the Montefiore colony in the Argentina with 1000 farmers and a village of SUOU persons. Established by the Baronid* Hirsch Fund for Overseas Colonisation of Persecuted Jews, this colony has prospered through several-generations and added to the wealth of the country. The D'Vigdor Goldsmith Colony ofi 350 German professional persons, established three years ago .in the Argentine and the smaller Fmca Miraflores «roup of 100 families, formed six months ago in Bolivia report tfgda* justment of former urban -dwejers to farm life, according to a spokesman of the National Refugee Service. MAKE GOOD FARMERS. 1 "We had the task of getting .lawyfc* doctors, and business people to tmn* and act as farmers," the spokesman, said. "This involved retraining^ of »• body and mind. Recent reports, ind£ cate that these pioneers, and to pa*. ticular those 30 years of age <*y°«3J3 have found fulfilment in their riev* way of life." « . Infiltration and subsequent aid oy private agencies rather than ptanjjf migration have characterised the cO£ olr sation of a large portion of the hundreds of thousands of Jews and uen* tiles, including thousands of Spamsn refugees, whose flight out of Europe since 1933 has made the greatest exoaui inUrug°u7 y , named the''Swit^land o« South America," by virtue of its W Constitution, admitted 3000 refugees and Paraguay 1000. Bolivia's JewiStt population alone during Pf^Jf-JK panicky flight grew from 100 to_6WO persons, and 3000 Spanish destitute flea to the Dominican Republic, While■ apr,rnvimat.Riv 6000 now are in Mexico.

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