Evening star., 1941-07-05
MarseiIIe Consulate
Is Besieged Gale
To United States
Lines Thot Extend
For Blocks Keep rs
Consulur Aides Busy
r.. s.ar, sp.e,.l News Service.

The Stars Special News Service.
MARSEIILiE, France, July s.
The door of the four-story build
ing ut 6 Felix Barret place now is
q main gateway TO the New Worlo
from this continent Of war and con-
centration camps.
This is the visa section OF the
United States Consulate here and
perhaps the greatest emigration Of
flee in the world today.
Here an overworked staf OF flve
consuls and 81 assistants does moth
ing but handle the cases of persons
In this refugee capital Of the con-
tinent who want to leave Europe
for good.
Lines that extend blocks long
have formed at the doorway. Touch
ing scenes are enacted here when
people seeking visas cannot get
them.
New United States immigration
regulations which bar aliens with
families in Axis or Axis-occupied
lands have shortened the line.
Let's 60 inside.
Upstairs there is line of persons
waiting to 20 through the mill Of
the receptionist examiners. Dozens
Of fat folders bearing names of
many nationalities lie on each desk
Emigration Smallest in History.
A small group of persons who
have made the grade-lt takes
months to get all the necessary
personal papers in Europe as well
as the requisite moral and financial
Endorsements from the United States
waits to see one of the first-1oor
consuls to get the letter which usu-
ally is good for a visa when and
| if the applicant has secured a
French exit permit and steamship
booking.
Consul James Bradford explains
that total European emigration has
been the smallest in history. Un-
occupied France is one of the few
places from which even a few are
permitted TO leave.
Boat facilities were reduced two
thirds when the French stopped
sailings to Martinique.
Head Visa Consul Harry F. Haw-
ley looks at the waiting applicants
and says: 1T is miracle that
these people have survived. We've
| had cases in which refugees were
| forced to fee five successive coun-
tries before coming here. Some
times they die before Endorsements
from the United States arrive, and
many of them are sent TO intern
ment camps"
Relatives Hold Them.
In the final visa Office Consul
Harry Donaldson is working with
worried expression and set jaw.
A pretty girl admits that she had
a brother in Poland but says she
hasn't heard from him since he
set out for the front to fight against
Germany in September, 1899. Mr..
Donaldson says ne will look into
the case further.
Next comes a gray-haired man
wearing the uniform OF a labor
camp for foreigners. Profession?
Composer. he says. He has a month
old farewell letter from his wife in
oclSluLl Saying ollC ID 1cdFiIlS AOt
the United States by way Of ST.
IBERIA and Japan.
Mr.. Donaldson explains that abb
solute proof is needed that she no
longer is in German occupied tern.
tory.
But it will take six months be-
fore I hear from her again." he
pleads vainly.
The procession continues :.
An eminent Viennese specialist
whose son Is in a concentration
camp middle-aged Czech
whose profession was listed as gar
dener-'I used to be a shirt manu-
facturer" An Ethiopian with
an old diplomatic passport.
Sometimes only one visa is issued
in an entire day.
Mr. Donaldson, harried but try
ing to grin, says spologetically:
L started here just as the new
regulations about relatives went
into effect. They al think It was
my fault"