With Utmost Efforts by Jewish Social-economic Relief Institutions to Improve Conditions of Jews Wher

The need to emigrate and the urge to emigrate among the Jewish populations of all the emigration countries, by far exceed all the existing openings for emigration, and it is clear that even with the utmost efforts made by our social-economic relief institutions to improve the condition of the Jews in the places where they live, emigration must still continue to be one of the most effective means of radically assisting a section of the Jewish population, and thus easing the position of those who remain behind, says the report just issued here by the Jewish United Emigration Organisation Hicem (Hias-Ica-Emigdirekt), dealing with the work it has accomplished in the three years of its existence, 1927, 1928 and 1929.

The Hicem came into existence at a time when the Jewish emigration movement of the post-war period had been reduced to the minimum, the report points out. The number of Jewish overseas emigrants in 1921 was 135,000, of whom about 120,000 went to the United States of America. After the first Quota Law of 1921-22, the number of Jewish emigrants fell to about 80,000 annually, and Jewish emigration to the United States fell to about 50,000 annually. After the U.S. Immigration Law of 1924, Jewish emigration fell again by about half, amounting to an average of 40,000 annually. Immigration to the United States in the first two years after the enactment of the new Law amounted to no more than 10,000 annually, and in the last three years it has been about 12,000 annually.

Since the condition of the Jews in Eastern Europe during this period not only did not improve, but actually became considerably worse, and the urge to emigrate grew in consequence more powerful each year among the Jewish populations, the report goes on, the catastrophic effect of this diminution of Jewish emigration becomes clear. It was natural, it proceeds, that under such conditions an attempt should be made to unify all the social forces engaged at the time in the field of Jewish emigration. The agreement between the three constituent organisations was concluded in February 1927 and the new organisation Hicem began to function on April 1st., 1927.

ACUTE PROBLEM IN POLAND.

The problem in Poland is particularly acute, the report says. The need to emigrate has grown very largely in the last few years not only among the Jewish population. But while the emigration needs of the non-Jewish population are satisfied by means of a rising emigration movement, both overseas and to various European countries, the emigration openings for the Jewish population are very limited. The general emigration figures from Poland amounted to 147,614 in 1927; 186,580 in 1928, and 243,323 in 1929, while the figures for Jewish emigration from Poland in the same period were 18,074 in 1927; 18,211 in 1928, and 23,378 in 1929. Of this total the United States admitted 5,234 in 1927, 5,051 in 1928 and 6,259 in 1929. Canada admitted 2,763, 2,592 and 2,678 respectively; the Argentine 4,113, 4,805, and 3,892 respectively; Brazil 1,095, 1,290 and 2,765 respectively; Palestine 839, 383 and 1,881 respectively; Mexico 313,279 and 284 respectively; Australia 390, 141,215 respectively, and South Africa 215,269 and 427 respectively. There was also a certain quantity of Jewish emigration to European countries, France admitting during the three years in question 829,968 and 1,917 respectively; Belgium 810,911 and 1,370 respectively; Russia 173,167 and 80 respectively, and Germany 91,193, and 87 respectively.

JEWISH EMIGRATION FROM RUSSIA: BRAZIL BECOMING IMPORTANT CENTRE OF JEWISH IMMIGRATION: ARGENTINE AFTER UNITED STATES MOST IMPORTANT JEWISH IMMIGRATION COUNTRY DURING LAST THREE YEARS: NEED OF EXPLORING FURTHER OPENINGS FOR JEWISH IMMIGRATION IN OTHER LESS KNOWN SOUTH AMERICAN COUNTRIES.

In Russia, the reports states, the emigration work is carried on by the Moscow office of the Ica. At the beginning of 1928 an agreement was concluded between the Comzet and the Ica, under which the Ica is authorised to attend to the Jewish emigrants from Russia. Under this agreement, the Ica office in Moscow developed a considerable activity at the end of 1928, particularly in providing information and searching for relatives. In individual cases, it was also possible to ease the formalities governing emigration from Russia. There are prospects that this activity will be extended in the future.

The high-water mark of post-war immigration to the Argentine, general and also Jewish, was reached in 1923, the report says, when 195,063 immigrants were admitted, 13,701 being Jews. Since then Jewish immigration has averaged about 6,500 annually. After the United States, the Argentine was during the last three years the most important immigration country for Jews.

Brazil is becoming increasingly important in the matter of Jewish immigration. The Jewish settlement in Brazil which was estimated in 1924 at about 10,000 grew by 1928 to over 30,000. 32 percent. of the Jewish immigrants in 1928 and 55 percent. in 1929 came from Poland.

Jewish immigration to Canada is diminishing with every year. For the last three years it has been 4,842 in 1927, 3,694 in 1928 and 3,680 in 1929. This is explained by the fact that since 1926, when the special concession obtained by the Ica for bringing in a certain number of Jewish immigrants expired, all efforts to obtain new concessions have been without avail. The only exception was the permission given to the Ica in 1928 to bring in 30 families of Jewish agricultural workers, and the special permission for 20 families from Poland and Lithuania obtained by the Montreal Committee of the Hicem in 1929. In general immigration to Canada is now restricted exclusively to relatives of those already resident in the country.

Unfortunately, the report concludes, the economic condition of the Jewish population in Eastern Europe is becoming increasingly worse, and in spite of all the difficulties in the way, Jewish emigration is growing from year to year. In 1927 the number of Jewish emigrants was 35,000, in 1928 it was 38,900 and in 1929 it was 45,200. It must be remembered that in the course of these three years one country after the other closed its doors almost completely against Jewish emigration, including Australia and South Africa. As a result, the Hicem is confronted by a number of new and important tasks. Energetic measures will have to be taken to utilise the existing immigration openings as far as possible and also to find new openings. What the Hicem has done in the last three years in the three most important South American countries ought to be done now in the less known South American countries, where there are small Jewish settlements, like Chile, Paraguay, Venizuela, Colombia, etc. The immigration openings for agricultural workers in France ought also to be explored to a larger extent.

Attention is constantly being directed also to the need of extending the network of Hicem Departments already existing in Poland and Roumania and of extending the Hicem activities to Hungary, Czecho-Slovakia and Greece.

These are the tasks, the Report says in closing, which confront the Hicem for the next three years for which the agreement between the three constituent organisations has been prolonged.