Probably one of the most encouraging developments in connection with the problem of caring for the Jewish refugees, who have left Central Europe, and the others who are to leave, took place on Thursday when Mr. Neville Chamberlain announced in the House of Commons that it was clearly necessary that large sums would have to be raised to finance Jewish emigration, and that it would be necessary to depart from the principle unanimously. agreed upon at the Evian Conference last year when it was decided that no participating Government would give direct financial assistance. This statement was implemented at a plenary meeting of the Evian Inter-Governmental Refugee Committee the same day, when Lord Winterton made a proposal to the same effect, whereupon the other delegates declared that they would have to consult their governments. As President Roosevelt has invited the Vice-Chairman's Committee of that body to visit the United States for a two-day conference early in September, it may possibly be that, by the time that event occurs, the attitude of the various Governments to this proposed change of policy will have been ascertained, and if it is found that they are in agreement it may very well be that the task of solving this most pressing problem will proceed at a quicker rate than it has done up to the present. The survey of Jewish emigration from the Reich, which has been published simultaneously with the new development, gives a very clear idea of the magnitude of the task which the International Committee has before it. During 1938 between 120,000 and 140,000 Jews left Germany, leaving a balance of 600,000 of which probably two-thirds are potential refugees. It is estimated that somewhere about 150,000 Jewish refugees from Germany are living in various other parts of Europe, of whom some 60,000 are being supported by private organizations. Money amounting to £10,000,000 has been raised from private sources, together with £5,000,000 representing donations in kind, but that has been done since 1933, so that it is proper to deduce that probably not a very large proportion of those amounts is available for meeting current and future needs.
The investigations which the Committee have made with regard to finding suitable territories in which Jewish families can be settled, without shaking their economic structure, suggests that there are such areas available, and that portions of the world, not at present opened up, may in time receive numbers of the refugees. Such an one is Northern Rhodesia where it is said the cost of settlement would amount to £1,000 to £1,500 per family. If that is the lowest figure possible then it is quite clear that a problem is presented wholly outside the capacity of private enterprise to solve. The gross sum required on the above figures, assuming five persons to the family, and that half of the refugees are destitute or without any such sum at their own disposal, then anything from £55,000,000 to £82,500,000 would be necessary to deal with the refugees from Germany alone. The sum is not a large one compared with the totals which are at present being spent in the maddest arms race the world has ever seen, but it is clearly beyond the power of private resources to put up any such amount, and on the basis of the very rough calculation the reversal of the policy originally decided upon at Evian-les-Bains last year seems to be completely justified. Indeed it may truthfully be argued that any decision which can now be taken affording a quicker solution than anything in prospect at the moment must have much to commend it, for it is intolerable that these poor people should continue to suffer one moment longer than is absolutely necessary. On the other hand the Committee's survey provides every good reason why there should have been past delays, even if one of them appears to be a complete failure at the outset to realize the size of the problem which was being presented. That and the speed with which the refugees are obliged to flee have been the greatest cam-plications in dealing with a matter which at any time would have presented difficulty.
It is not to be thought of for one moment that the refugees when they come to be settled will not be expected to return the money which it is suggested should be provided for them. Obviously some method will have to be devised whereby they shall gradually repay such advances on terms calculated to impose no very heavy burden upon them, especially in the earlier years of their settlement. It should not be difficult to make arrangements by which from the very outset these people would realize that they are not objects of charity, but are being given an opportunity to carve out new careers for themselves, undoubtedly in new lands which may call for the highest pioneering qualities, and where they will be able very extensively to contribute to the economic stability of their new homes. Abandonment of the Evian policy adopted last year may be just that ray of hope which has been missing since the question of dealing wita these Jewish refugees first arose. Much, of course, will depend upon the manner in which this new development is approached by the other parties to the International Committee. That the money necessary will not be in the nature of a gift, but of a loan ultimately repayable, may have a favourable effect upon those who otherwise would oppose such a scheme, though even then there is a danger that no small amount of resentment may be stirred up because destitutes of the nations providing such a fund are not in a position to receive similar treatment. That is one of the aspects of the whole affair which will need the most delicate handling, but, whether that be so or not, the fact is that the Jewish refugees present a world problem of very considerable difficulty, not only because of its present dimensions but because of those it might assume in the not too distant future. The German Jews are not the only members of their race threatened in certain parts of Europe, a fact which must be remembered when considering the figures arrived at above. That, however, merely strengthens the belief that if anything at all is to be done,—and it is agreed that something has to be—then it were better done quickly.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.