TO SETTLE 100,000 JEWS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23631, 15 October 1938, Page 16

TO SETTLE 100,000 JEWS

Details of a proposal to place 100,000 Jewish refugees on Melville Island have just been received in Christchurch by Mr Phineas Selig. Melville Island is 40 miles north of Darwin and measures about 80 miles by 40, with an area of 1,500,000 acres. The soil is fertile and the rainfall from 50 to 60 inches a year. The proposal has been made by Mr J. B. Crarnsie, formerly chairman of the Australian Meat Council, and he has communicated it to the League for Jewish Territorial Colonisation London. He believes that it could be carried out with a capital of from £5,000,000 to £10,000,000, which would be provided by settlers and overseas Jewish interests. MrCramsie described his plan to the Sydney

Millions Club a week ago. He thinks that 25,000 families could be placed on the land. It transpires that the league has been investigating another suggestion to form a company to acquire Durack’s Holdings, of which over 5,000,000 acres are in the Northern Territory and nearly 2,000,000 in Western Australia. The league will send a commission of experts to investigate the possibilities of this territory and Melville Island, and Mr Crarnsie will accompany the commission.