REFUGEE PROBLEM.

Evening Star, Issue 23324, 21 July 1939, Page 8

REFUGEE PROBLEM.

At an international conference held at Evian, in France, at the beginning of the year various matters relating to the refugee problem were discussed. An intergovernmental committee was set up to forward the arrangements for providing living room for involuntary migrants from Germany. A meeting of this body was held in London on Wednesday, and it is made clear from_ the report that the scheme drawn up providing for financial assistance by the participating Governments will have to be amended. Private organisations are evidently finding difficulty in raising the sums needed for the work they have undertaken. The German Government’s proposals for facilitating Jewish emigration allowed for an exodus spread over five years, with the idea of establishing a controlled and orderly emigration. It was stated that the trust fund which Germany was prepared to create to assist emigration would be financed through a levy of 25 per cent, on the money remaining in the hands of Jews in Germany. This levy, at least, would be used solely to benefit the Jews. How effectively this plan has operated has never been stated. The German Government appeared to contemplate the emigration of 150,000 men ahd women Jewish wage earners up to the age of forty-five and about 250,000 dependents of such persons. This would leave behind in Germany some 200,000 Jews over forty-five, who because of their age or through infirmity would be incapable of earning their livelihood as emigrants in new countries. They were also to receive better treatment, according to German assurances. , From the report of this week’s meeting of the intergovernmental committee it is gathered that the number of voluntary and involuntary refugees who left Germany last year was nearly 300.000. Britain and the United States have opened their doors, but not indiscriminately, to the refugees. Brazil, San Domingo, and the Philippines, among others of the smaller nations, have provided accommodation. Australia offered to take 15,000 refugees within three years, subject to the existing laws of individual selection. The British Government is keeping a tight hand on all refugees who wish to take up work and residence in the country, for it was laid down that its own unemployed) must be the first claimants for assistance. No refugee may accept a job so long as there is any British subject capable of filling it. There is, however, another side to the picture. It is the case of the Huguenots over again. Refugees in Britain have created their own jobs, and they have created work for thousands of British workers as well. All over the country industries and businesses, large and small, are springing up which arc employing British work people who were previously unemployed. A striking illustration is that the valuable fur trade of Leipzig has been transferred to England. Many valuable manufacturing industries have been established by refugees. The policy that has been followed by the British Government was based on the humanitarian instincts of the people and their love of liberty. In some measure it is being repaid by an influx of skilled and enterprising people who aro opening up new avenues of trade in the country.