840.48 Refugees/1520: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Kennedy)
208. For Pell. Your 386, March 22, 6 p.m. Our position is: (1) that the conversations must continue; (2) that they should be resumed as soon as a useful purpose would be served thereby; and (3) that the basis of the program continues to exist despite events in Czecho-Slovakia, [Page 99] although the increased number of persons who will presumably be involuntary emigrants will necessitate adaptation of the program and a longer period in which to carry it out. To give up what has already been accomplished with the German Government would be an injustice to those whom the Committee was created to assist.
We estimate that there are from 110,000 to 125,000 Jews in Bohemia, Moravia, and the Sudeten areas and from 90,000 to 100,000 in Slovakia. Applying the percentage estimated in the confidential memorandum (that 25 percent of the total Jewish population was in the wageearning category) the maximum number of additional persons to be emigrated in accordance with the program would not greatly exceed 50,000.
The Committee’s task is a practical humanitarian one, comparable in a general way to that of the Red Cross, and its efforts should continue no matter what the general political situation may be, short of a major war. We feel that the Committee’s efforts should not be relaxed as a result of recent events but that on the contrary they should be energetically carried forward. We hope that these events may cause the British and other governments to make more active efforts to solve the problem.