JEWISH REFUGEES

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18205, 28 September 1933, Page 5

JEWISH REFUGEES

HARASSING FRANCE MERC’H A NTS THR E ATEN E D I’A RIP, Aug. Mb Tlm> continuous influx into Franc-e ol German refugees, chiefly .lows, has raised an almost insotuuble problem befort 1 the French authorities of tin l eastern provinces. The big industrial contres of Kastern Franco, like Strn.sbourg Metz. Nancy and Colmar, have been flooded with German exiles, who, with the industriousness typical of the Jewish race, have started new commercial enterprises. Faced with their competition, the tradesmen of Alsace and Lorraine now are energetically protesting against it and asking the French Government to put an end to this state of things.

In a report sent to Paris the Chamber of Commerce of Metz says: “We protest against a definitive settlement in our region of these foreigners and ask the Government to protect our industry and trade by prohibiting them from creating industrial or commercial

enterprises.'’ The Colmar chamber lias filed a similar petition, suggesting that the League of Nations should try to find work for German refugees in mandated territories, while political agitators, it says, should not he .allowed in France at all.

Strasbourg’s tradesmen declare that “the arrival of foreigners threatens to shatter the balance of our economy,'’ and demand that the I‘>27 commercial treaty signed by France with German v should be denounced, since il •grants the right to German citizens, even if they are undesirable in their land, to most-favored-nation treatment aa regards their sojourn in France and their settlement for purposes of trade or industrv.