Unrra Calls On Morgan To Resign

Northern Advocate, 5 January 1946, Page 5

Unrra Calls On Morgan To Resign

(Rec 11 a.m.) LONDON, Jan. 4. Unrra has called for the resignation of Lieut.-General Sir Frederick Morgan, chief of its operations in Europe. Unrra’s European regional office issued the following statement: “Following the Press interview given by General Morgan at Frankfurt on January 2 Unrra felt obliged to call for his resignation. “The administration completely dissociates itself from any view he expressed.

“The interpretation which has been placed on General Morgan’s statements made it impossible for him in future to serve the Administration effectively. “The Administration reached this decision with regret, in view of the valuable services General Morgan has rendered displaced persons in Germany.”

NEED FOR SOLUTION Tit is to be regretted that the remarks at the Press conference were interpreted in some quarters as an attack against the motives of European Jewry-,” declared General Morgan, in an official statement to the Press.

“My only- object in saying what I did was to bring to the notice of the competent authorities the need to reach a solution of the displaced persons problem in Germany as a whole. “It is a thousand pities that the Jewish fraction of the problem has been so unduly emphasised. It is only a fraction of the overall displaced persons problem to which a solution must quickly- be found.

“No one who lias been as close to the war as 1 have, and seen the results of Nazi bestiality at its worst, can fail to appreciate the fears and aspirations of the surviving remnants of European Jewry. PURPOSE OF INTERVIEW “They need more than sympathy and temporary shelter. They deserve a coordinated programme for tire permanent establishment of places of security, with the support of those nations in a position to participate in a definite plan. "My purpose in bringing up the problem of European Jews was to focus the attention of the world on the need for a more permanent solution than Unrra could possibly furnish." RESIGNATION DENIED The chief of Unrra operations in Germany (Lieut.-Generai Sir Frederick Morgan), in an earlier statement today, denied a report from Washington that he had resigned his post. “I see no reason why- I should,” he said.

General Morgan added that in making his charges about the exodus of Jews from Poland he had not been referring to the Jewish problem as a whole.

A message from Washington said an Unrra official reported that Lieuten-ant-General Morgan had resigned hi a post.

The “Daily Mail” says organised groups of J|\vs are steadily moving southward from Russia, Poland, Czechoslovakia and the Balkans toward Palestine.

Agents in most of Ihe capitals oi Eastern Europe are helping,the groups now on the move and provide them with money anj names and addresses of contacts along the route who will help them on the journey to Southern Italy, whence the travellers hope they will be able to proceed to Palestine. BLACK MARKET LIVING The “Daily- Mail” adds that many oi the travellers are armed and make a living dui-ing their journey; in the black market or by whatever means present themselves. The trek however, is at present ending in Southern Italy, where Jewish travellers find themselves unable to enter Palestine.

Unrra the extreme southern ’.ip of Italy, is maintaining several camps at which travellers are lodging until their fate is decided.

The New York “Times” correspondent in Munich says interviews with scores of recently-arrived Polish Jews at Ihe transient reception centre there indicated that a mass migration to Palestine was being instigated, assisted and partly financed by Polish Zionist committees. LNDERGROUNB ORGANISATION The migrants revealed that a" regular underground organisation exists m Poland to assist the wholesale exodus of Jews to Palestine; that the organisation maintains secret collective centres in such cities as Lodz and Katowice; and that it provides Jewish refugees with false papers and cash for the journey.

A mesage from Washington says the newly-appointed Polish Ambassador (M. Oscar Lange), commenting on General Morgan’s statement, admitted that large numbers of Jews were leaving Poland, but said it was only because so many had lost their families during the Nazi occupation that the country had become a kind cf cemetery for them.