SUCCOUR FOR THE JEWS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 131, 4 May 1934, Page 6

SUCCOUR FOR THE JEWS.

One of the gravest problems of mankind—the succouring- of Jews without a country—may partly be solved if the preliminary negotiations for the settlement of a larg-e number of these unfortunate people, now being conducted with the Portuguese Government, are carried to fruition. Settlement on a large scale is understood to have been approved by the Government of Portugal, and the State in which the transplanting of so many human beings is to take place is Angola, a Portuguese dependency in West Africa. The British Foreign Secretary, Sir John Simon, is among prominent British politicians reported to be interested in the scheme. Those affected may be drawn from Germany, Poland, Austria, and Roumania. In this movement may be perceived the first fruits of the J ewish Relief Commission set up some time ago by the League of Nations, of which Mr -lames McDonald, president of the American League of .Nations Union, is chairman, and on which Britain has. Viscount Cecil as its delegate. The Zionist organisation is represented by Dr. C. Weizmann. The magnitude of the task confronting the Commission may be gauged from the fact that there are at present no fewer than 60,000 German Jewish refug-ees alone; in Poland there are 3,000,000 , Jews, and their position is desperate. Dr. Weizmann recently stated that it would be necessary to make provision for 200,000 German Jewish refugees, or one-third of the Jewish population of Germany. Investigations show that the plight of Jewish men, women and children who, through no fault of their own, are to-day homeless and desperately uncertain of the future is grave indeed. The chairman of the Commission recently said that the direct effects on the individuals concerned are, in all conscience, bad enough, but the implications of the situation are so grave as to disquiet all those who believe that i-elig'ious and racial tolerance are essential qualities of civilised men. The issues, he added, are as broad as humanity itself. Under the _ scheme proposed now it is possible that 5,000,000 Jews who are living in a state of hardship will be finally affected, and as its sponsors are receiving considerable financial, as well as moral, backing, it may be that soon it will begin activity, in which case a farreaching development should transpire. A project for Jewish settlement in the same territory was advanced in 1913, but it fell through. Conditions have undergone a vast change since then, however, and the need to-day is far moi’e pressing, more desperate, than could even have been imagined then.