840.48 Refugees/1577
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Chief of the Division of European Affairs (Moffat)
The Portuguese Minister called this morning. He told me that his Government had received a memorandum from the Rumanian Government [Page 102] urging the creation of a Jewish State capable of assimilating a large number of Jewish emigrants from Europe. He asked whether we had inspired this step; I replied “no”. Developing this theme I explained that the work of the Intergovernmental Committee (the organization of which was due to the initiative of the United States) was three-fold: (1) To arrange for orderly emigration of refugees from Germany; (2) to negotiate with countries of settlement—both those which could take in individuals and those which were suitable for mass settlement; and (3) to help set up an international corporation for the financing of refugees from Germany. I went on to explain that from the beginning other Eastern European countries which desired to get rid of their Jewish populations claimed that the Intergovernmental Committee was in effect putting a premium on anti-Semitism because it was caring for the victims of German pogroms and doing nothing about the Jews of Eastern Europe where there had not been pogroms. However, our feeling was that we must first take care of the present emergency situation existing in Germany, and after that it might be possible to extend the scope of the Intergovernmental Committee.
The Minister said that of course countries in Eastern Europe, notably Poland, had been very interested in Angola. At one time there had even been Jewish colonies there, though these had not lasted. He was very fearful that a further move might be made that would involve Angola. As a matter of fact, there was a feeling in Lisbon that the American Government believed that the British had approached the Portuguese, suggesting that they make an arrangement involving the cession of Angola and Portuguese East Africa in the interest of world appeasement. To make the record entirely clear the Minister wished to state categorically that no such approach had been made by Great Britain, and that such an approach (despite the events of 1898 and 1912) would not be in accordance with the British-Portuguese alliance.