840.48 Refugees/3530: Airgram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Uruguay (Dawson)
A–228. Your telegram no. 46, January 11, 1943. Prior to the occupation of former unoccupied France, American Consuls in that area were notified that arrangements were being made to receive up to 5,000 refugee children of refugee parents who had been deported from France or who were about to be deported. The arrangements for issuing visas to such children under 16 years of age were suspended when the Consular Offices in unoccupied France were closed, but at the present time authorization has been given to Consular Officers in Spain and Portugal to grant visas to such children who have reached those countries and to refer to the Department for expeditious consideration the cases of refugee parents desiring to accompany their refugee children to the United States. The general arrangements relating to children only also apply to children with parents in Spain or Portugal who have signified their desire to have their children proceed without any relation to the parents’ own immigration.
As a large portion of the child refugee cases handled have concerned Jewish children, it is possible that the Uruguayan Jewish Committee had in mind the special arrangements outlined above when it approached the Uruguayan Foreign Office.