840.48 Refugees/4861
Memorandum by the Chief of the Visa Division (Travers) to the Assistant Secretary of State (Long)
Mr. Hayter of the British Embassy called on me yesterday with reference to the six-thousand children who are in France and who Mr. Leavitt51 desires to move to Switzerland. It seems that the Swiss Government is willing to accept these children if they can have a guarantee that the children will be moved after the war. Mr. Leavitt proposed that between one-thousand and three-thousand numbers be used in the Palestine quota and I had previously told Mr. Leavitt that we would recommend that procedure to Mr. Hayter. Mr. Hayter has submitted the matter to London but desires also that the matter be taken up by the Intergovernmental Committee. He asked if we had any objection to the Intergovernmental Committee giving consideration to the movement of these children to other countries as well as Palestine and I told him, of course, we would be glad to save these children and send them to any country where they would be safe.
I mentioned that we could not agree to accept them here after the war as we could not answer for the future especially as there might be a change in the immigration laws. He is taking up the matter with the Intergovernmental Committee and I told him that we agreed with his proposal to do so.
- Moses A. Leavitt, Secretary of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.↩