VAST RESCUE TASK

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19886, 14 March 1939, Page 16

VAST RESCUE TASK

500,000 GERMAN JEWS ''DESPERATE (CONDITION'' LONDON, Feb. 14 The Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees faces the problem of planning the rescue of more than 500,000 German Jews. Of this number, 35,000 are in concentration camps, 90,000 are children, and, perhaps, 200,000 are ablebodied men and women, able under the new German proposals to go ahead and prepare homes Overseas for their dependants. Behind the apparent calm of the deliberations, there has been a sense of urgency. The delegates are fully aware of the desperate condition of the Jews in Germany. They also realise that there is a strong possibility that i'f the German plan is rejected, a new outbreak of antiSemitism may occur. Germany has admitted that her plan for linking the emigration of the Jews with an increase in her exports is impracticable. This has .caused relief, since it placed a premium on anti-Semitism and may encouraged anti-Semitism in countries which are neighbours of Germany. Large Scale Plans Needed It is recognised that only largescale State-aided plans /will meet the demands of the situation. Private relief organisations cannot stand the strain of transferring the refugees, the cost for whom is averaging at least £2OO, apart .from the cost of maintaining in sympathetic countries refugees awaiting transfer overseas, which, in individual cases, has exceeded £SOO. What is unknown is who will undertake a large-scale plan. The Times, in a leader, suggests the appointment of a body of men experienced in colonial development, from whom.-an .estimate of the cost could be obtained. "Then it will toe seen what must be raised by loan to carry this colonial development into effect," the paper says. "It might well be possible for the British people to share in this new conception of colonisation. Many of the difficulties, both sentimental and practical would undoubtedly disappear if the problem were considered, not only as imposing immediate liabilities, but as offering vast ultimate opportunities.' Jews' Misery in Germany

The Berlin correspondent of the News' Chronicle draws a harrowing | picture of the condition of the Jews. "Formerly wealthy families, living by the sale of their possessions," he says, "are slowly being reduced to penury. Destitute Jews are receiving a dole of only 5s a week. Hundreds of Stateless foreign Jews, who have lived in Germany so long that they have lost their foreign passports, do not receive even this. "I saw many young men who had no fingers as* a result Of frostbite suffered in concentration camps. Twelve families are living in one flat. All the synagogues have either been burnt or closed, tout the Jews i still worship behind locked doors."