LOST TRIBES OF 20TH CENTURY

Northern Advocate, 29 December 1937, Page 2

LOST TRIBES OF 20TH CENTURY

A serious attempt is being made to throw light on the problem of the "lost tribes” of the twentieth century. At the suggestion and with the liberal assistance of the Rockefeller Foundation, and supplemented by grants from the Leverhulme Trust and the Halley Stewart Trust, ? the Royal Institute of International Affairs has undertaken a scientific survey of the world’s refugee problem. Investigators appointed by the Refugee Survey are now at work in France, in Holland and Belgium, in the countries of the Near East, including Turkey, Syria and Cyprus, and in China.

Sir John Hope Simpson, director of

the Survey, told the “News Chroncile” that efforts will be made to publish the results of the inquiry early next July.

“Unthinkable.”

It is hoped that this will be in time for the problem to be considered in the light of the report of the Survey before the dissolution of the Nansen Office and of the High Commission for German Refugees, the two legal organisations for the protection of refugees.

Under a resolution of the Assembly, these organisations are due to be liquidated in December, 1938. “Should the League decide finally to wash its hands of the refugees, which

is to me an unthinkable possibility,” said Sir John, “they will be thrown back entirely on the voluntary bodies.” The men, women and children unprotected by their .native country include Russians, Germans, Italians, Spaniards, Armenians, Assyrians and Saarlanders, in addition to a few Turks and Austrians. Of these, an incalculable number are involved;, some estimates put the figure as high as a million.

Migrations Charted

Not only will their weary migrations throughout the globe during the past twenty years be charted, but the survey will include a history of completed settlements such as those of the Bulgarians in Bulgaria, the Anatolian Greeks in Greece, the Jews in Brazil. “The political, economic, social, educational, cultural and legal aspects ■ji the refugee question will be studied in detail,” said Sir John. “The question of the use of refugees

for political propaganda will also be examined.”

Sir John expressed the opinion that, France had been outstanding among; European countries in the hospitality! offered to refugees. The same liber- [ ality was not evident in the case of i England.