867N.55/204: Telegram
The Consul General at Jerusalem (Wadsworth) to the Secretary of State
[Received 4:48 p.m.]
25. By an order dated April 22 made under section 5A of the Immigration Ordinance the High Commissioner has authorized the issuance during the first 2 months of the semester begun April 1 of 2,050 immigration certificates to individual immigrants and of such additional certificates as are needed for wives and minor children of such immigrants and of immigrants previously admitted.
An appended explanatory note estimates at 3,000 the total number of certificates to be issued under this order and announcing as a matter of policy that there will be issued during each of the succeeding 2 bimonthly periods of the semester a similar total minus the number of [Page 843] illegal immigrants recorded during the immediately preceding bimonthly period, thus providing for an estimated total immigration of 9,000 during the current semester. Of the 2,050 figure 1,950 certificates are reserved for Jews.
According to the note, total immigration during the year ended March 31 was approximately 26,000 of which 10,500 was legal, the remainder being made up of immigrants recorded as unlawfully arriving and/or remaining. Ten thousand of this total are therefore charged to last year’s authorized immigration quota and 16,000 to the special 5 years’ refugee quota, thus leaving 9,000 of the latter unfilled.
Of the current semester’s estimated total immigration 5,000 is to be charged against the year’s authorized immigration quota of 10,000 and 4,000 against the remainder of the refugee quota.
The significance of the new order lies in the fact that after 6 months’ suspension, imposed to counterbalance illegal immigration, Palestine’s immigration regime has [been] brought back in line with that announced in the British White Paper of last May.
An interesting modification provides that no certificates shall be issued to persons who have resided in enemy territory after the outbreak of war or in enemy occupied Poland after October 1st.