Except for a few veteran Zionists in Yugoslavia, no Jewish refugees from the Balkans other than those who already hold immigration certificates will be admitted to Palestine, Colonial Undersecretary George H. Hall made clear in the Commons today.
Col. Josiah Wedwood, Laborite, had asked whether progress could be reported regarding proposals to allow some of the Jews driven out of Rumania to enter Palestine and also whether similar permission would be extended to the Jews in Bulgaria and Yugoslavia before it was too late.
Hall replied that the Jewish Agency had been informed that the Jews in Rumania who had received certificates before Feb. 15 would be admitted, provided that satisfactory arrangements were made to prove their identity and bona fides. He added that practical arrangements to apply these safeguards were now being worked out.
Colonial Secretary Lord Moyne has not received any representations regarding the position of certificate holders in Bulgaria since the German occupation, Hall said, but in the event this question arises, consideration will be given to the possibility of making similar arrangements. Regarding Yugoslavia, the Palestine High Commissioner has proposed, at the Jewish Agency’s request, that a limited number of “replacement certificates” be issued for veteran Zionists, he declared.
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