Evening star., 1938-07-04

HlNlCdtlOll 10 SeLu
delegates to Evian. The nations which
have agreed to join in this first in
ternational humanitarian undertak-
ing of its kind are Argentina, Aus
tralia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Can
ada, Chile. Colombia, Costa Rica,
Cuba, Denmark, Dominican Republic,
Ecuador, France, Great Britain,
Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico,
Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua,
Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru,
Sweden, Switzerland, Uruguay, Vene-
zuela and the United States.
y X X
1t needs to be emphasized, to avoid
msapprehensions both here and
abroad, that the problem to be tackled
at Evian, purely, in the first instance,
as a fact-finding proposition. is not
confined to Hitler's pet aversion. the
Jews. While that community of
roundly 100000 or 100000 souls con-
stitutes the bulk of German and Aus
trian political refugees" within the
scope OF the United States plan. per-
sons of other faiths, too. have felt the
lash of Nazi persecution They in
clude Roman Catholics and Lutherans.
who for reasons other than racial
have suffered various forms of dis
abilities, indignities and restrictions
of their rights under the totalitarian
regime. In this category are nom
Jews, like Thomas Mann, Pastor Me
moeller and former distinguished
leaders of liberal. cultural, Socialist
and tradeunion movements.
The United States representative at
Evian will be Myron C. Taylor, former
chairman of the United States Steel
Corp. His assistants and advisers will
be Robert T. Pell of the State De-
partment, formerly attached to the
Paris Embassy and to successive
American delegations at Geneva, and
George L. Brandt. former chief of
the visa division of the passport Office
in the State Department and now in
the consulate general at Mexico City.
The American delegation will have the
cooperation of James G. Mcdonald,
chairman of the Presidents Advisory
Committee on Political Refugees. Mr..
Mcdonald is probably the worlds fore
most authority on the problems to be
discussed at Evian. because he was
the League of Nations high commits
sioner for refugees coming from Ger
many in 1888, 1884 and 1885. The
n nr,,h hor nf tla i
visory committee, some of whom may
be at Evian as unofficial observers.
are Hamilton Fish Armstrong. Paul
BaerWald, Joseph P Chamberlain.
Basil Harris, Louis Kennedy, James M.
Speers DR.. Samuel McCrea Cavert
and Rabbi Stephen S. Wise.
X xx
OF course. the paramount issue con-
fronting Evian is the readiness and
capacity of various countries to re-
ceive the refugees in question. Unless
there is genuine and generous inclina-
ton throughout the world to let down
immigration bars, the well-intentioned
proposal of the United States is
doomed to become little more than
pious gesture. The Latin-American
countries and certain British do
minions have revealed an enthusiastic
desire to welcome these unfortunate
Germans and Austrians Other coun-
tries, including the United States. not
only are restricted by their immigra-
ton laws and quotas from lberalizing
the admissibility of aliens. but are op-
pressed by economic conditions which
make it impracticable to do anything
which might augment existing armies
OF unemployed, Palestine. containing
at present some 100000 Jews, prob
ably has capacity for twice that
number. but immigration is hampered
by British reluctance to aggravate
Arab animosities by increasing the
Jewish quota and by the terrorism and
unrest caused by the Arab-Jew feud.
X
Another immensely practical diff
Guilty is how to finance the emjora