JEWISH EXODUS

Grey River Argus, 5 January 1946, Page 5

JEWISH EXODUS

' FROM EAST EUROPE Revelation Resented t LONDON, January 3. Lieut.-General Morgan, U.N.R.R.A. chief .in Europe, has declared that, there is a planned exodus of Jews from Eastern Europe, and that it is being secretly directed. The British Foreign Office has decided to investigate the matter. The “Evening News” says: A request for an injuiry into the accuracy or otherwise of the allegation was made by U.N.R.R.A. The Foreign Office is expected to inquire through Britain's diplomatic representatives in Poland and in other Eastern European countries, and the matter may eventually come before the Anglo-Ameri-can Committee studying the Jewish questions in relation to Poland. The Board of Deputies of British Jews issued a statement declaring it was astonished General Morgan should be so ill-informed. „ Despite repeated official Polish-Czech statements admitting anti-Semitic attacks, the few surviving Polish Jews are understandably fleeing from places of horror in the hope of starting afresh a Jewish national home. “General Morgan’s reference to a Jewish plot is not only grotesque, but highly uncharitable and unworthy when it comes from the head of an organisation whose purpose is to bring comfort to the suffering victims of Nazi brutality”.

MORGAN’S REVELATION.

CONFIRMED TN GERMANY.

(Rec. 9.50). NEW YORK, Jan. 4. The “New York Times” correspondent in Munich says: Interviews with scores of recently-arrived Polish Jews at a transient reception centre here indicated that a mass migration to Palestine is being instigated and assisted and financed partly by Polish Zionist committees.

General Morgan has revealed, firstly, that a regular underground organisation exists in Poland to assist a wholesale exodus of the Jews to Palestine; secondly, that this organisation maintains secret collective centres in such cities as Lodz, and Katowice; thirdly, that it provides the Jewish refugees with false papers, and also with cash for their journey JEWISH EXPLANATION. (Rec. 9.10). WASHINGTON, Jan. 4. A newly-appointed Polish Ambassador, Ascar Lange, commented on General Morgan’s statement. He admitted that a number of Sews are leaving Poland. He said it was only because so many had lost their families'. During the Nazi occupation the country became a kind of cemetery for them. Mr Lange conceded there are some anti-Semitic activities in Poland. He maintained most of the reports are exaggerated. He said there was only one pogrom, and that was at Krakow. A person who instigated a purge was at present being tried on charges. Mr Zimmerman, vice-chairman of an American Labour Committee, who has just returned from studying conditions of Polish Jews,, said only 70 or 80 thousand of thirty-five hundred thousand Jews remained alive in Poland, and those were leaving the country. They feel that in order to retain sanity and regain a possibility of a normal existence, they must get as far away as possible from graves and cemeteries of their next of kin. Judge Ridkind, who is adviser on Jewish affairs to Lieutenant-General McNarney (U.S.A. Occupation Army Commander), described as “just so much poppycock” the suggestion of General Morgan that a world-wide Jewish conspiratorial organisation is arranging for the infiltration of Polish Jews into the American zone. Judge Ridkind gave his personal views on General Morgan’s belief that the flow of- Polish Jews westward is part of -a well-organised positive plan. Judge Rifkind said that 95 per cent, of those he interviewed were leaving Poland under a sense of compulsion, either genuine or imagined. The predominant factor in the flight was fear. Those who returned to their homes in Poland found an attitude of intense hostility on the part of the native population. He had seen notices posted on Jewish doors ordering the occupants to leave Poland on pain of death. There was no evidence that there had been progroms in the sense of mass slaughters, but the receipt of notices to leave, punctuated by the death of some individual Jew was sufficient to bring home the point. The Polish Government was opposed to the persecution, and was attempting to eliminate it, but thus far it was powerless in the face of the anti-Semitism of the population. Migrants from Poland were guided and assisted,' not by a secret organisation,, but by the remnants of the old Jewish organisation which had existed in Poland for many years. They were assisted by volunteers, to whom the rescue of the few remaining Jews in Europe hagl become the only passion making life worth living. Only 75,000 of 3,500,000 Jews in Poland before the war were surviving. It was among these that a skeleton service for the guidance of migrants had arisen. The guidance consisted mainly of rudimentary road instructions. Migrants undoubtedly hoped they would eventually reach Palestine. MORGAN RESIGNS. JEWS PROVE THEIR POWER. (Rec. 10.5). NEW YORK, Jan. 4. A U.N.R.R.A. official here reported that the British officer, Lieut.-General Sir Frederick Morgan, had resigned as Chief of U.N.R.R.A. operations in Germany. General Morgan had aroused criticism from Jewish organisations both in Britain and America as the result of his press conference statement that the thousands of Polish Jews moving into the American zone in Germany are doing so in a well organised plan to get out of Europe. ROUND UP OF PALESTINE JEWS. JERUSALEM, January 3. A "communique” issued by the illegal Jewish organisation, Irgun Zvai Leumi, stated it was responsible for the attacks on Jerusalem, Jaffa,' and Tel Aviv-. on December 27. Worded in typically military style, the communique stated that Irgun soldiers took up strategic positions opposite the main police barracks to prevent police reinforcements from reaching the attackers, who were blowing up the C.I.D. buildings in the centre of the city. The attackers tried to spare lives. It was officially announced that

900 were detained yesterday after the round up in Jerusalem’s central district. JEWISH COMPLAINTS AGAINST BRITISH. FOR NOT ACTING AGAINST ARAB BOYCOTT. (Rec. 7.10). JERUSALEM, Jan. 4. The Arab League’s boycott of Jewish goods spread officially to Palestine yesterday. This was when the Palestine Arab Higher Committee, representing six major Arab parties, endorsed the ban. The Arab newspapers to-day urged the Arabs not to purchase merchandise from the factories and workshops of the Palestinian Jews. The Hebrew press meanwhile has commented sharply on the statement made by Mr J. V. Shaw, the chief secretary to the Palestine Government, that special Government action is not yet necessary on the boycott, as the Government has not received any official intimation of a boycott. ■ A Tel Aviv Jewish newspaper, the “Haboker”, declared that Government silence on the boycott encouraged agitators, creating an impression that the Jews were without Government protection. A Jewish Right Wing newspaper, “Hamshkif”, described Mr Shaw’s reply as definitely inadequate.