840.48 Refugees/4904: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 27—9:45 a.m.]
8997. In connection with preparations for January 4th meeting the Director of the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees hopes Department will instruct regarding questions raised in his following letter to Embassy:
“As you know the question of getting children out of France is being referred to the Intergovernmental Committee by the American and British Governments. It will probably come before the Executive Committee at its next meeting to be held on the 4th January. The actual reference is confined to the possibility of persuading Switzerland to give temporary asylum if the Vichy and German authorities will allow the children to leave France. There is, however, another line which we think should be simultaneously pursued, if the Executive Committee agrees.
When the problem arose during the late summer and autumn of 1942, offers were made by various governments to give asylum to children from Vichy France, if they could be got out. The offers which are relevant to the present situation are those made by your Government, the Dominion Government of Canada and the Government of the Argentine, and further the question of certificates being made available by the Jewish agency for Palestine. We are now ascertaining as a preliminary to the matter being put before the Executive Committee, first, whether these offers still hold good and second, how far the Governments concerned are willing to modify them [Page 399] if necessary to meet the present circumstances. Although I have no official information giving the exact terms of the offer made by the Government of the United States, I understand that it was prepared to take 1,000 children from Vichy France, the age limit being 16 years of age for children of non-enemy origin, and 14 years of age for children of enemy origin. There was the further prospect of the number being raised to 5,000 should this be necessary. The arrangements then contemplated were that the children would be got out into Portugal in the first place and thence direct to their countries of asylum. Our view is that we should pursue the direct passage through Portugal as well as the line of persuading Switzerland to receive some of the children. We also think that our efforts should extend to children in the whole of France, and not merely to Vichy France. The success of either method is of course dependent upon the willingness of the French and German authorities to grant exit permits, and the prospects of their doing so are not favourable. We have, however, to make plans on the assumption that there will be a favourable response and have therefore to ascertain what places of asylum are still available. I shall therefore be grateful if you will ascertain from the State Department:
- a.
- Whether the previous offer still holds good. If so how many children does it cover and what are the exact terms of it?
- b.
- If it applied only to children from Vichy France, can it be extended to cover children from the rest of France?
- c.
- Assuming that in addition to getting children out through Portugal the Swiss Government would agree to giving temporary asylum also to some groups, and further assuming that before the end of the war it may be necessary and possible to remove them from Switzerland, would the offer be extended to cover such children and if so would the age limits apply to the date of removal from France or Switzerland respectively?
Since the matter is very urgent I shall be very grateful if you could request an early reply from the State Department.[”]