840.48 Refugees/4741: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 6—10:35 a.m.]
7713. The Director of the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees has proposed that the Vice-Director should immediately visit Italy, presumably by way of North Africa. The Department’s approval is sought as well as the necessary steps with military and civilian authorities concerned to provide requisite facilities. The Embassy’s [Page 373] opinion is that refugee matters under consideration here would be greatly benefited by the proposed visits taking place. The Director’s letter making the proposal, dated November 5, follows:
“As we have already told you in personal conversation, we think the time has now come to raise simultaneously with the Foreign Office and the Department of State the question of an immediate visit to Italy by a member of our headquarters staff. Reports about the refugee situation there are now reaching us from various quarters, including information concerning the flight of Yugoslavs and others from the North to the South and inquiries about conditions and proposals for action are continually being presented to us. A prompt visit by the Vice-Director, who is ready to undertake the task, would serve the following vital purposes:
- (1)
- Accurate and impartial, comprehensive and up-to-date factual information would be obtained by a person acquainted with the refugee problem, and representing a body officially and specifically dealing with it. The Office of the Intergovernmental Committee, reorganised as a result of Anglo-American initiative at Bermuda, and publicized as the chief instrumentality of many other nations as well in the refugee field, should be enabled to become quickly the central clearing-house of facts and ideas on the subject. Furthermore early activity by the Intergovernmental Committee in every accessible United Nations or neutral area is a means whereby member governments can demonstrate good faith to persons who may not sufficiently understand the barriers which for the most part prevent current activity on behalf of refugees elsewhere.
- (2)
- First-hand contacts would be made with the authorities—military and civilian, public and private Anglo-American and Italian—who would deal practically with the urgent problems of refugees found in an area liberated by Allied Armies. Such contacts might help those authorities, who are seldom specialists on refugee matters, and who are over-burdened with other duties; certainly, the later and vastly larger work of the Intergovernmental Committee would benefit from having someone at headquarters equipped from the start with direct knowledge of the early sample situation in Italy. While there, he would also be able to prepare for the work of the resident representative, whose appointment in the near future we have previously discussed with you in general terms.
En route to Italy, presumably by way of North Africa the Vice-Director could become briefly acquainted with new developments in situation there, particularly in respect of the proposed camp for refugees now in Spain. After spending a month or two in Italy (Sicily, if necessary), he could stop in North Africa for as much time as had been made desirable by progress with the camp, et cetera.
We should be grateful if you would present our proposal to the proper authorities in the Department of State. If further conversations with yourself or others seem needed, please let us know. Should [Page 374] the Foreign Office and the Department of State approve of our proposal, we should be glad if they would take the necessary steps with the proper military and civilian authorities in London and Washington, North Africa and Italy, to provide the requisite facilities for the Vice-Director’s Mission.”