840.48 Refugees/2012
The Under Secretary of State (Welles) to the President of the Coordinating Foundation (Van Zeeland)
Dear Monsieur van Zeeland: On the basis of our recent correspondence, I consulted the President regarding your plan for the resettlement of refugees.86 He was most appreciative of your courtesy in having him informed of the progress of your work and wished me to tell you that he found your plan interesting and, on the whole, sound.
The President had one suggestion to make and that was that the plan would have a greater appeal, that is would stimulate the imaginations of potential contributors more, if it were directed toward one or two large-scale settlements, measured in terms of a million square miles and millions in population, where the refugees might found a coordinated, self-sustaining civilization—some people on individual farms, others nearby in small villages, still others devoting themselves to public works, still others in small manufacturing communities, all contributing to a huge, rounded-out project planned on an enormous scale. If the program is to succeed, in other words, it should, in the President’s view, appeal to the idealism of the contributing public and move people so deeply by its grandiose inception that they will wish to participate in its execution.
The President is of the opinion, moreover, that too much emphasis should not be placed on the investment aspect of the financing. Resettlement of large numbers of people cannot be put solely on a business basis. In his judgment fifty percent of the cost could properly be financed on a business basis, but the remaining fifty percent will have to be given, not loaned, in the form of gifts from individuals and governments. The President is in agreement with you that the first tranche—your figure is $20,000,000—should properly be subscribed by the “capitalist group”, but he is of the view, although of course the details of the plan must be left to you, that at least half—or $10,000,000—should be given outright and the remainder “invested”.
Above all, imaginations must be fired and real heart put into this [Page 157] undertaking if a solution is to be found of this problem which is one of the basic problems of the world today.
I am sending this letter to you at your New York office with the understanding that it will be forwarded to you in Europe. I wish you success in your conversations abroad and look forward to a further meeting with you upon your return to the United States in January.
Believe me [etc.]
- See letter of December 1, supra.↩