Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1951-02-25


appears, as the problem of World
War II victims-approaching but
never quite reaching solution
now is aggravated by the addition
of new millions to the total of
those who have been forced to
seek new lives in new lands.
The terms refugee" and dis
placed person" are not to be con-
fused. A refugee is one who rs
without home by his own choice,
fleeing either wars devastation or
a hostile government. A displaced
person is one who has been moved
from his home by governmental
decision. Most of those originally
termed displaced persons now have
become refugees by their refusal
to return to the country whose
nationality they formerly held.
III. n. Jurisdiction Limited
Just how many persons through
out the world fall today in the
class of refugees is matter of
persisting dispute. The figure OF
80 million to so million who are
fit subjects for international relief
action was given recently by Fred
w. Riggs in the Foreign Policy
Report. 1.-THE Worlds Refugee
Problem"
This figure drops sharply. how
ever, to a little more than 3 mil
lion. if account is taken only of
those for whom the United Ma
tons, in one way or another. has
responsibility. In between those
two figures lies a great, uncertain
body of persons who have left
their homes for one reason or
another and now have found more
or less permanent homes and live
lihoeds in their own or foreign
countries.
The roll of refugees and dis
placed persons may be broken
down along the following lines:
/. Three hundred thousand
World War II displaced persons,
for whom the International Refu-
gee Organization is solely re-
sponsible. Practically all of these
are in Europe.
2. Nine million German refu-
gees in the Western zones of Ger
many.
3. Seven million Indians who
have moved out of Pakistan into
India.
4. Six million Pakistanis who
have moved out of India to the
Moslem commonwealth.
S. Nine hundred thousand Arab
refugees in or from Palestine.
6. Two million Koreans-the
latest additions to the roll OF
refugees.
7. Two hundred fifty thousand
Turks being expelled by Bulgaria.
8. Thirty million Chinese, whose
exact number and state of need Is
highly speculative.
The problem of World War I
refugees had shrunk to small pro-
portions when World War II burst
on Europe and sent scores of mil
lions fleeing from Poland, Norway,
Holland, Belgium, France and the
Balkan countries. Millions of
these, escaping from the fighting
zones, Immediately returned when
the tide of war had passed, and
spent the rest of the war under
Axis occupation. The process was
repeated when the Allies closed
in on the Axis.
18 Members in IRO
When the war ended in 1945
there were roughly 8.5 million
refugees and displaced persons in
Europe, most of them in Germany.
These were made up of war
prisoners, slave laborers imported
from Nazi occupied countries, and
some who had left their own
countries voluntarily to work in
Germany during the war.
Immediately after the war
ended about z million of these
returned to their home countries,
with the assistance of the COM
bined Allied forces. These people
all nom German-are not to be
confused with various groups of
Germans who found themselves
without homes at the wars end.
The z million were not in conflict
with heir own governments and
were able to solve their own prob
lem with a minimum of inter-
national help.
Left for international handling
were roughly is million persons
who refused to go home. These
were mostly former nationals of
the Soviet Union or of countries
which had fallen under Soviet
domination. They were Russians
of all kinds, Poles, Estonians,
Latvians and Lithuanians. and
other peoples of Central Europe.
A large number were Jews who
refused to return to oppression in
Poland.
The United Nations Relief and
Rehabilitation Administration at