Cable to missions abroad finally sent (first this group, later others). The WRB asks the missions to approach the governments to which they are accredited to present the new US policy, and also to send the WRB a report on the situation for refugees in their country. This leads to a fabulous string of cables as missions from all over the world send reports about how their government feels about refugees and what they might be willing to do to help. Since I’m probably not going to be able to show you very many, if any at all, here are some highlights:
Honduras reported that there were 185 refugees in Honduras and they did not want any more: “It is unlikely that the immigration of other races incompatible with the mass of the present population (Spanish-Indian) would be permitted.”
Haiti was supportive; President Lescot proposed to donate $10,000 from the State lottery, the proceeds of the ticket sales for a movie about Lescot’s visit to the United States, and the money from a new stamp surcharge on packages leaving the country. Two weeks after receiving the cable, Lescot sent $500 from ticket sales and said that he was forming his own refugee committee. (This doesn’t come to much, and the $500 ends up going somewhere else, but it’s the thought, right?)
The US minister in Saudi Arabia said the instructions did not apply to his country: “In the past two years one Jew is known to have come to Saudi Arabia…That he ever came to Arabia is believed to have been due to a misconception of where Jidda is on his part, and to ignorance on the part of the Saudi officials that he was a Jew.”
Australia was “not interested in taking any initiative looking towards admittance of refugees, or in rescuing or assisting them.”
In Afghanistan: “the willingness of the Afghan Government to admit qualified Europeans is probably exceeded by the reluctance of such persons to come…living conditions…are hard.”
Iceland said they had no restrictions on Jewish immigration and no visa requirements, but they had never been approached about taking anyone before.
It’s really interesting to look through the responses of all of these countries to the creation of the WRB and the request that they consider doing something for refugees. So many refuse, and it makes it clear what an uphill battle the Board was going to be fighting. (And also makes it clear that for all the books about how “America did nothing,” no one else was willing to do anything.)
