On March 26, 1939, the Nansens traveled by train to Berlin and separated at Tempelhof airport, Odd Nansen flying to London to seek the assistance from Lord Herbert Emerson, the League of Nations high commissioner for refugees. Emerson had ignored all of Nansen's previous telegrams but was more receptive in person. He agreed to send an emissary to Warsaw to assess the situation. Nansen took his cause to the British parliament and the Soviet ambassador to St. James, Ivan Maisky, where he was rebuffed, though the ambassador expressed his profound appreciation for Nansen's father's efforts to alleviate the Ukrainian famine.