762.71/71
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Welles)
The Minister of Rumania called to see me this afternoon. …
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He spoke at great length about Rumanian policy with regard to the Jewish population and urged that I bear in mind that Nazi propaganda was always stirring up the Rumanian people against the Rumanian Government because the latter had not taken more violently anti-Semitic measures and that the greatest assistance that could be rendered to the Rumanian Government in maintaining itself would be for the Intergovernmental Committee to devise some practical method for the emigration of at least a small percentage of Rumanian [Page 101] Jews. The Minister said that if only 50,000 Jews could be permitted to emigrate from Rumania to some proper place of refuge the agitation would die down because this step would constitute a safety valve, and the Government could then point out that a place of refuge did exist where Rumanian Jews could go. He emphasized the psychological benefit which this form of assistance would give. I explained to the Minister once more the situation with which the Intergovernmental Committee was confronted and assured him that once this emergency was solved the long range program of the Committee very definitely proposed migration of minorities from other Central European countries and Eastern European countries and that I had reason to believe that effective progress might soon be made.