ENVOY TO REPORT TO ROOSEVELT

Southland Times, Issue 23674, 24 November 1938, Page 5

ENVOY TO REPORT TO ROOSEVELT

American Interest In Jewish Problem PROPOSALS FOR AIDING REFUGEES (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright) (Received November 23, 8.40 p.m.) WASHINGTON, November 22. The President (Mr Franklin D. Roosevelt) before leaving for Warm Springs for a fortnight’s holiday stated that the United States Ambassador to Berlin (Mr H. R. Wilson) would confer with him at Warm Springs on Sunday morning about the situation in Germany. The President declined to comment on a report that the United States Ambassador to London (Mr J. P. Kennedy) had “had to be prodded” to take a more active interest in the refugee question, and said he was without information about the Tanganyika and British Guiana offers. The State Department confirmed reports that it had sent a Note to Germany requesting assurances that the recent decrees excluding Jews from commercial enterprise in the Reich would not be applied to United States citizens. .

The German Ambassador to Washington (Dr Hans Dieckhoff) called on the Secretary of State (Mr Cordell Hull) to bid him farewell before his return to Germany. Observers commented that the meeting lasted only two minutes, simply fulfilling the barest diplomatic requirements.

Mr Hull declined to discuss the suggestions by the British Prime Minister ■ (Mr Neville Chamberlain) about Tanganyika and British Guiana for the settlement of refugees. He added that he wished to study the Prime Minister’s statement more closely and to consider it in the light of the work of the inter-governmental committee in < London. „ , , r ’ If a feasible plan can He worked out it is assumed that an arrangement can ; be made through the proper agencies for American contributions towards the cost. PROTESTS UNABATED Protests against the German treatment of Jews and Catholics continue unabated, and the first crystallization of opinion about the methods Americans must pursue to rescue refugees have appeared. These, however, show the existence of much uncertainty and fumbling about making a start. Labour, civic, religious and political bodies ana representatives have reiterated their mounting indignation, uniformly recommending Mr Roosevelt’s attitude and urging him to take the lead at an international conference to provide homes for the persecuted. A wireless broadcast to the nation, headed by leading German-American citizens, including the publishers of the chief German language newspapers, called on the American people to distinguish between Herr Hitler and the German people and insisting that the German Government did not represent the latter. , _ Mr Herbert Hoover, the former President, speaking at Toronto scathingly denounced the Russian and German Governments. He called the German persecution of the Jews most hideous, and gave a warning that armed dictatorships “proclaim new ideologies and economic security to satisfy their personal power. They live by terror and brutality.” MERCHANTS’ GESTURE Merchant groups in various cities have closed their establishments for an hour as a protest against German conditions, and movements to raise funds to aid refugees have already begun. Decorators, both employers and employees, in New York have given a number of hours’ work, and a wellknown merchant of Boston paid for a full-page advertisement in the newspapers calling on 1000 persons to contribute 1000 dollars each, to bring 1000 Jewish families from Germany. Other unusual proposals included the step taken by a group of Harvard students to create a national foundation to bring in refugees, enrol them at American universities and provide sustenance until their studies are completed. The Common Weal, the leading Catholic publication in the United States, in an editorial urged immediate modification of the immigration laws to permit the entry into the United States of Jewish and Christian refugees from Germany. . The New York Daily News in an editorial expresses hope that a concrete, workable plan for handling the German refugee problem may soon be the outcome of world-wide discussion on the subject, but it declares that the imperative need is tact on the part of statesmen and nations attempting the rescue. “It looks as if nothing but tactful, careful and polite negotiations with Herr Hitler on the part of the nations interested can save the German Jewish minority” says the editorial. “Without German co-operation nothing can be achieved, and Mr Chamberlain erred in mentioning Tanganyika, which has only caused a further reaction against the Jews in Germany.” The New York Sun calls the Jewish expropriations a Nazi grab for money, and issues a warning that contributions to the funds from other countries td help the German Jews will enable the Nazis to make more levies on the Jews and thereafter on Catholics. “To what degree Germany can pursue this course to strengthen by extortion its financial structure is problematical,” it adds. From various sources, particularly governments in the western hemisphere, the question of easing the position. of German refugees already in America or of making room for others is being agitated. The Prime Minister of Canada (Mr W. L. Mackenzie King) in a statement said Canada would exert every effort to see that no hardships were imposed on Jewish refugees who had gained entry to Canada. The Cuban President (Colonel Batista) has signed a decree ordering Cuban consuls to grant visas to Jews fleeing from Germany provided they can comply with the immigration laws of Cuba; that is, that their financial resources will prevent them becoming public charges.