This document represents the end of nine days of wondering from me. I had FDR’s schedule for May 11th, in which it says he met with John Pehle. Do you know what was in the WRB records for that day? Nothing. Zip. No mention of a visit to the Oval Office. No “John was over at the White House earlier today and…” Nothing.
So I was wondering if I was EVER going to learn from the primary sources what he was doing there, and I refuse to go to secondary sources for big stuff like this. And finally, a memo! And the memo explained why the long delay.
At this meeting, Pehle updated FDR about the War Refugee Board, and their hopes for a free port. (FDR didn’t like the term “free port” and so the WRB supplied him with an alternate list of names: “SOS (Station of Security)”; V-Camp; Emergency Refugee Shelter, etc. They went with Emergency Refugee Shelter.) The President was willing to act on the suggestion without going to Congress, but Pehle needed to find an emergency. Something FDR could point to in the face of Congressional criticism to explain why he needed to circumvent the legislative process to establish the camp. Eight days later, as of the writing of the memo, Pehle had his emergency. Do you remember the cable from Robert Murphy from a few days ago–saying that the military should try to prevent refugee traffic from Yugoslavia to Italy, since it was taxing military resources and the camps in Italy were full? There’s the emergency. Bringing refugees from Italy to the US would (at least nominally, at least seemingly) act as a pressure release to the situation.
