840.48 Refugees/1469: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Kennedy) to the Secretary of State
[Received March 1—3:25 p.m.]
285. From Pell. Your 150, February 27, 7 p.m. I discussed the subject of this telegram with the appropriate officials of the Foreign Office today. They said that in the last two weeks they had received reports from British representatives in the Caribbean, Mediterranean, Pacific and Black Sea areas of the arrival of Jewish refugees without visas on German ships. So serious had the situation become that last week the British Ambassador in Berlin was instructed to bring the facts to the attention of the German Government and to urge upon it the discouragement of such practices. The German Government replied to the Ambassador yesterday to the effect that the German authorities could not accept responsibility for directing emigrating Jews to a specific destination, that it was not the concern of the German authorities where the Jews went once they left Germany and that the authorities could not prevent Jews buying passages on German [Page 94] ships even though their papers for entry into other countries might not be in order.
In view of this reply it is the opinion of the British that a further approach to the Germans through diplomatic channels would be of little avail. They believe that it might be of greater effect if during my conversation with Wohlthat, which has now been arranged for Friday, I should bring this situation to his attention and point out to him that this activity may hamper immeasurably the endeavors of the Intergovernmental Committee to work out a plan of orderly settlement and defeat the program which it was hoped to work out following upon his conversations with Mr. Rublee. [Pell.]