840.48 Refugees/849: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Kennedy) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 26—1:10 p.m.]
1245. From Rublee. My 1244 of October 25, 8 p.m. I learned this morning that it was proposed to circulate the memorandum to the governments this afternoon and to give it to the press at the same time.
I therefore sent the following letter to Winterton:
“I have examined the communication which you, as Chairman, propose to circulate to the governments participating in the Intergovernmental Committee and, since you have so very kindly requested them, I give you my immediate reactions.
In the first place, I fully agree with the spirit of the proposed communication, that is to say, that the potential emigrants from the Sudetenland, some of whom are still within the enlarged German frontier, and some of whom are in Czechoslovakia, should be assimilated with the persons coming within the scope of the Intergovernmental Committee as defined in paragraph 8 (a) of the Evian resolution. It would be most unfortunate, and might have a baneful effect indeed upon the Committee’s negotiations with the German Government if special preference were to be given to one group of persons of this category at the expense of other groups. The fate of the victims of the transfer of Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia to Germany is no worse and no better than is the fate of the victims of the absorption of Austria by Germany, or the fate of persons who have been designated as undesirables within the old Reich. To give more favorable treatment [Page 806] to the Sudetenland group is to work an injustice to the emigrants as a whole, and must convince the German Government that a general solution of the problem is superfluous if it can be solved piecemeal.
Coming to the detail of the memorandum which you propose to circulate, I note that for the first time in a document emanating from the Intergovernmental Committee, a differentiation is established between Jews and non-Jews in this instance, Germans. I believe that we must recognize that the overwhelming majority of the persons with whom the Committee is obligated to deal are Jews or non-Aryans. If we were to begin to differentiate, even to the extent of indicating in a formal document that there are different categories based on religious and racial origins, encouragement would be given to the deplorable and growing tendency in many countries to discriminate against persons of the Jewish faith with the result that my problem of finding places of settlement for the great mass of involuntary emigrants would become insoluble, and I should not be in a position to convince the German Government that if it would make concessions with regard to the transfer of Jewish property, I could persuade the governments participating in the Intergovernmental Committee to receive involuntary emigrants in greater numbers than are received by them at the present time.
My second observation refers to the last paragraph of the proposed memorandum, where it is stated: ‘the Director will circulate to the members of the Committee such particulars as he is able to obtain of the number and type of involuntary emigrants who have been or may be created by the transfer of the Sudeten areas to Germany, as well as conditions in which these persons are able to emigrate. The Director will also be glad to receive any information on these points which members of the Committee may be in a position to furnish him.’
This provision would seem to go directly counter to the spirit of the earlier paragraph of this same document where it is stated that: ‘it is desirable on grounds of equity that no individuals or groups should be placed either in a more or less favorable position than other individuals or groups who desire to emigrate as a result of the action of the same government’, that is German Government. Clearly, the effects of this provision would be to focus attention upon the problems of the involuntary emigrants from Sudetenland and to invite the governments participating in the Intergovernmental Committee to communicate suggestions for a solution of that particular problem which is only one small part of the problem as a whole.
In conclusion, I sincerely hope that the circulation of this document to the governments participating in the Intergovernmental Committee and its publication may be deferred at least until the governments represented by officers of the Committee have been consulted. It would not be conducive to the success of my negotiation with the German Government were there to be an appearance of a difference of opinion among the governments having the leadership in the work of the Intergovernmental Committee on the eve of my visit to Berlin.[ˮ]
- [Rublee]
- Kennedy