840.48 Refugees/154: Telegram (part air)

The Minister in Rumania (Gunther) to the Secretary of State

52. Minister for Foreign Affairs today expressed his wholehearted admiration for the President’s initiative in making a general appeal for the admission into other countries of political refugees from Germany and Austria and expressed the hope that this might be extended to Rumania. The Minister suggested as the next step the establishment somewhere in Switzerland of bureaus for Rumania, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and Germany to deal with Jewish or political refugee problems in those countries.

Due to the conclusion of citizenship tests in this country this month the problem of what to do with those who emerge therefrom without nationality will become active. The Minister intimated that Rumania would like to dispose annually of a number corresponding to the Jewish [Page 743] birth rate. He seemed to think that in any case there would be no pressure to send away the old and the young under 20 or over 40 years of age.

Gunther