Evening star., 1939-05-27
0. R. I. Is Pictured
As SaIvaging Lives
OF Jewish Refugees
Purpose of Training
Displaced People
Emphasized at Meetina

crat, Of New York, and the Congress
Slonal Committee of American ORT
were hosts yesterday afternoon at
a luncheon in the Mayfower Hotel
IN honor of M. Francois de Tessan,
French Journalist, soldier and dip
iomat, who is in this country to fur
ther plans for aid to refugees from
European nations.
An old organization of Russian
origin, ORT was defined at the
luncheon as meaning organization,
reconstruction and training. 1t is
the purpose of ORT to take refu-
gee men and women from various
walks of life and train them to be-
come skilled specialists in manual
labor.
M. de Tessan spoke before a gath
ering that included Senators Green
OF Rhode Island and Heron of Iowa,
Representative Bloom of New York.
Count de Saint-Quentin, Ambassa-
dor OF France; Count jerry Potocki.
Ambassador of Poland; Constantine
OumanSky, Ambassador of the So
Wet Union; Radu Irimescu, Ruma-
nian Minister, and Povilas Zadelkis,
Minister of Lthuania. Present also
were jacques Truelle, Charge DAT
flares, French Embassy; r. Smits,
Charge d'Affaires of the Latvian
Legation; Radio Joe" Kaufman.
Washington businessman, and civic
leaders of Jewish affairs in WASH
inpton and Raltipore
Problem for Host Nation.
M. de Tessan, who recently arrived
from France, told of the work being
done in his country by ORT and
emphasized the fact that since the
recent crisis in Europe France has
been the haven for innumerable ref
ugees from Germany, Italy, Czecho-
Slovakia and Spain.
Striking proof of Frances hos
pitality," he said, lis the fact that
We have 100000 foreigners now
living among 100000 French
men. Refugees are among our most
urgent and pathetic problems"
M. de TasSan explained the work
done by ORT. He said the prob
lem confronting the world is to let
these refugee people lead useful
lives; to teach them new profess
sions and trades.
AS an illustration of what he
meant. M. de Tassan told of an ex-
pertinent conducted in Southwest
France, where Jewish refugees-for
the most part made up of middle
class workers and intellectuals-
been converted into French farm
ers. He cited this as proof there is
no basis for the charge made in some
quarters that Jews are not suited
for agricultural life That particu-
lar group was made up of petty
traders, lawyers, neWspapermen,
doctors and artisans. Yet, after be-
ing deprived of their livelihood, they
took to the new pursuit of farming
and made good at it, according to
the speaker. Today they are happy
in their new environs, their fields
are well tended and their livestock
thriving, M. de Tassan said. But,
best of all he added, their souls
are not terrorized by those plaques
which since 1888 have swept Eu-
rope"
France, however, cannot alone
solve the refugee problem, the
speaker declared He pleaded with
Americans to help in the work out
lined by ORT.
George Backer, president of the
American ORT Federation. in a
brief address, explained ORT. He
said his organization stood for the
salvation of refugees from all strick-
en- countries of Europe who are de-
moralized, dispoSSesSed. discouraged
and disintegrated. "All the Euro
pean states" Mr.. Backer declared,
have a problem in the disposses-
sion of their Jewish people. 1t is
our problem to give them a helping
hand, to make them over. BY that
I mean to make them from small
traders and storekeepers into people
who will assist in the development
of the countries to which they flee.
To this end ORT tries to teach
skill to people who need instruction"
Senator Mead, POSTMASTER, intro
duced M. de Tessan as a member of
the French Chamber of Deputies.
who now occupies the seat once held
by the Marquis de Lafayette, of
American Revolutionary fame. A
direct descendant of Lafayette, M.
de Tessan is a vice president of the
French Parliamentary Committee of
the ORT for Refugees.
Would Widen Vocation Range.
1t was brought out at the meeting
that those who founded ORT and
those who have brought it to its
present stage of usefulness had and
have the insight to recognize that
the emancipation of the Jewish peo-
pie never could be complete until the
whole range of vocations is made
accessible to Jews, not only by the
removal of positive restrictions, but
also by training process fitting
Jews for occupations denied to them
in the age of the ghetto.
Had the ideas of ORT been
followed" it was pointed out by Mrs.
Aaron Lesser. "the Jews displaced
from Germany would not now be in
so desperate a plight. A large pro-
portion of them would have been
skilled artisans and farmers, and
any country would welcome them.
Indeed, it is very doubtful that any
country would have been so mad as
tn eYpel neople normallv diStrib-