Evening star., 1938-03-26
Christian Charity.

Even our 1SOlatlOnlStS are unlikely TO
protest against the program of collective
action just initiated by the United States
on behalf of political refugees from Aus
tria and Germany. According to later
statement by President Roosevelt, the
scheme also contemplates refugees from
Soviet Russia, Italy and strife torn
Spain. That humanitarian effort springs
from the brutal oppression to which
Austrian Jews have been subjected since
the plague of Naziism reached the
Danube. 1t is intended, too, of course,
to ameliorate the plight which has made
life for 6ermanys Jews a living hell
since 1888.
Washington has appealed to twenty
nine countries, embracing most of the
civilized world, urgently calling for CO.
operative effort to facilitate the emigra-
ton of the victims of Nazi persecution.
While these are principally of Jewish
faith, they also include Catholics and
Protestants. The neo-pagan, sadistic au-
thors of cruelties which only find their
parallel in medieval barbarism, play no
denominational favorites. "Aryan" or
non-"Aryan," any who fail to acknowl-
edge Der Fuehrer as the all-highest come
automatically under the ban. But, be-
cause Nazi excuses are visited most sys-
tematically and widely upon Jews, it is
they who are chiefly envisioned by Presi-
dent Roosevelt and Secretary Hull in the
appeal addressed to Great Britain,
France, Italy, Switzerland, the Neither
lands Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, Nor
way and the twenty sister American re-
publics. AS the proposal on its face is
an indictment OF Hitlerism, the invitation
to Italy is of particular interest. Unwit-
tingly or otherwise, Uncle Sam has put
the Berlin-Rome axis on the spot.
What the Washington Government
projects is increased immigra ton, within
existing quota laws and demonstraple alb
sorptive capacity, of German and Aus
trian refugees into lands willing to well
come them. No state aid is contemplated
Any financing of the emergency emf
grafton" would be undertaken by private
organizations within the respective coun-
tries. American Jewry has given a not
able and bountiful account of itself in
this field, in connection with Palestine.
1t is undoubtedly because of the limited
ability of the planned Zionist state to
sustain the hordes of oppressed Jews
created by European conditions that the
present scheme is launched.
America is or logical ground in taking
the lead in this timely exhibition of
Christian charity. Its action accords
with the fundamentals which gave birth
to this Republic and our subsequent ira
ditions. Many material considerations
need to be weighed before the plan can
be effectuated either here or abroad.
Under the combined German-Austrian
quotas, for example, only about $4,000
persons could be brought into the United
States before June 80. Another impor-
tant contingency is the extent to which
German laws against permitting emf
grants to take money with them would be
relaxed to meet the embargo imposed by
many nations, including our own, against
aliens who might become public charges.
1t is to be hoped that the urgency of
the situation will evoke general readi-
ness to view literally these various prac-
tical aspects of the problem.
As James G. Mcdonald, League of Ma
tions High Commissioner for Refugees
Coming from Germany, has stated,
when domestic policies threaten the
decentralization and exile of hundreds of
thousands Of human beings, considera-
tions Of diplomatic correctness must yield
to those of common humanity"