July 21.
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 Jarge 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 participating Government would give Girect 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 estimat 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, as. suming 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 10 £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 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 Jast 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 much to commend it, for it is me tolerable that these poor people should continue {0 suffer one moment longer than. is absolutely necessary. On the other hand the Committee's survey provides every yood 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 the speed with which the refugees are obliged 10 flee have been the greatest complications 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
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.