REFUGEE PROBLEM

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 308, 27 November 1936, Page 8

REFUGEE PROBLEM

PLANS FOR EMIGRATION. Emigration, plans for settling refugees from the fciaar in Paraguay were mentioned by Judge Michael Hansson, the Norwegian jurist, who is_president of the Nansen Office of the League of Nations, at a conference on refugees convened by tile League of Nations Union at the London School of Economics. According to the report of the proceedings, published in the Manchester Guardian, Judge Hansson said that arrangements had been made with the Government of Paraguay for settling a number of refugees from the Sam' in that South American republic. Ino French Parliament was expected to vote funds for the purpose and a stait Would be made with 200 families. “Neither I nor the Nansen Office can accomplish anything,” said Hansson, “without the goodwill of the separate nations, the League of Nations, and the general public. Up to the present the League has only granted the Nansen Office enough for administrative expenses. But I am glad that a grant was made to the Assyrians, it it was admitted that Great Britain, Europe, and the world had obligations to the Assyrians, how much more do they owe the Armenians, an object of continual persecution, nearly halt ot whom have been annihilated. DRIVEN TO SUICIDE Jiuffie Hansson said that the deplorable practice existed of Pushing refugees from one country to anothei. lheie was the case of a Russian refugee who had been imprisoned 29 times tor no other orime than that of existing. It was one of the greatest scandals of our time, and it was not surprising that many refugees found an escape iiom an uncharitable world in suicide. Belgium had set a good example m setting up a commission on refugees with a representative of refugee orgamsa-

tions on it. Refugees were too often expelled on secret information or on the action of minor officials. . . The convention of 1933 assured minimum rights for refugees, prohibited their expulsion, and gave them the right to work. But only a few governments had ratified the convention He would he especially glad if the Bntish Government would ratify it, as the French Government gave signs ol aom?‘Can the governments of the world,’ Judge Hansson concluded, “return to a state of chaos? The Nansen Office is working in the interests of all ku manity. All human beings should be made to feel that they have the right to live, work, and found a family. The failure of the League has been due to the jealousy of the nations. If they cannot agree politically, they might at least agree to sink their differences in order to co-operate m this great humanitarian work.” Lord Cecil said that, short of slaughter there were only two ways or disposing of refugees; either to absorb them in the social and economic life of the country or to settle them n some country which was ready to receive blocks of refugees as colonists. Mr C. A. Macartney, of the Intelligence Department of the League o Nations Union, described the yrduable work achieved by the League itself in assisting between 1,500,000 and 2,000 - 000 refugees from Russia, soon artei the end of the war and in the mass settlement of 500,000 Greek refugees from Turkey. Up to 1929, lie said it was thought that the refugee problem uould be a temporary one, an aftermath of the war. But a growing spirit ot nationalism was continually effecting refugees.