840.48 Refugees/1628: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Kennedy) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 19—3 p.m.]
715. From Pell. My 706, May 18, 5 p.m. The meeting with the Berlin group took place according to schedule. Israel and his associates said that the German police who were doubtful if practical results would come from Wohlthat’s conversations with the Committee, [Page 113] had taken note of the fact that in the first 4 months of 1939 emigration from the old Reich and Austria had fallen off and each month was decreasing. Countries such as those in Latin America where infiltration had been possible in the past had finally closed up altogether. The settlement projects would take years to develop. In short there did not seem to be any immediate prospects of increased emigration. Accordingly the police had instructed the Jewish leaders to go to London and obtain from the Committee a statement with figures of what it proposed to do in the first year. This statement should include, in addition to the contributions of the quota countries, specific details as to the numbers of persons who would be admitted in the current year in countries where a quota system is not in effect. The implication was that if the Jewish group did not bring back to Berlin a statement along these lines the police would be unable to prevent a recurrence of shock tactics at least in the provinces and possibly throughout Germany.
The Jewish group produced suggestions as to how this plan for the year 1939 might be formulated, and pleaded with us if we could not agree to give them a plan, at least to give them a programme with accompanying statement that we would submit this programme to the Governments participating in the Committee.
Emerson was adamant in his refusal to give them either a plan or a program. He read from the memorandum which I presented to Wohlthat on April 6th51 and said that that was the extreme limit of which the Committee could go. He would not be a party to a dishonest statement and any statement which would convey an impression to the German authorities that governments would follow this course or that in the future, particularly with regard to numbers, would not be an honest statement. There had been nothing in our conversations with the Germans which could lead to the belief that the Committee was prepared to bind itself even morally to a specific program for the current year. The Governments were doing their utmost and so were the private people who were preparing to finance emigration and settlement but any suggestion of threat would render further discussions with the German authorities impossible. He had the greatest sympathy for the plight of the Jewish community in Germany but neither he nor the Committee nor the Governments’ agents for Committee were going to submit to blackmail.
The group from Berlin was obviously very distressed and begged Emerson at least to write a letter to Lord Reading saying that the Committee would strive to take out a specific number of people in the current year and allow them to take a copy of this letter back to Berlin. Emerson declined to do this.
[Page 114]Thereupon Israel made a final appeal requesting a letter to Beading merely stating that the Committee was proceeding along the lines of the memorandum of April 6 to Wohlthat and expressing a hope that it would succeed in carrying it out. Emerson refused even to consider this minimum plea. [Pell.]
- Not found in Department files.↩