WANTED TO ESCAPE

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20920, 27 September 1939, Page 11

WANTED TO ESCAPE

EYE TO AMERICA CENTRAL EUROPEANS QUOTAS FILLED TEN-FOLD Hundreds of thousands of residents of Central Europe, panicstricken in fear of war, religious or racial persecution, are clamouring for admission to America, reports the New York correspondent of the Evening Post. Immigration quotas from some countries are filled for hopeless numbers of years. From Hungary* for instance, an applicant for an American visa although eligible and accepted as such, may have to wait a quarter of a century or more before entering the United States. Quotas that, in recent years, were far from being filled, now are over-applied for, ten-fold. Filled for Eleven Years The countries from which applications are especially high are all in Central Europe and all are affected by some form of anti-Semitism. They are Germany, Czechoslovakia (which has been absorbed by Germany, but whose quota has not yet been merged with that of Germany), Hungary, Poland, and Rumania. Although the German quota is 27,370 a year, 298,000 applicants for quota visas had registered at American consulates at the end of the fiscal year, June 30. On the face oi it, this would mean that the German quota is already filled for eleven years to come, but about half the applicants are rejected on physical, mental, or other grounds. Tn Poland, the applicants numbered 114,000, compared with a quota of 6524. The proportion of rejected applicants from Poland is higher than from Germany. The most pitiful situation exists in Hungary, where 30,000 applied, against a quota of 869 a year. It is rendered all the more difficult because the Hungarians have a smaller percentage of rejections than almost any country. Prior to and following Hitler’s occupation of Czechoslovakia, there was a rush of vi*»

applicants, so that, at the end of June, 51,000 persons were on the lists, against a quota of only 2874. Rumania has the smallest quota among these nations with large Jewish populations yet its ‘ backlog” of applications is, in proportion, among the highest, 19,000, as against an annual quota of 377. A curious development is that the rush has already started from Russia. The 'quota from that country is 2700, but [applicants numbered 11,000. A large number of these, however, are ! from Russians who live outside Russia. German Preponderance This prospective immigration will ; over-balance the immigration from other parts of Europe, and thus run counter to the wishes of the framers [of the Immigration Act, of 1924, who desired that the majority of j immigrants should come from Great

: Britain and Ireland. Quotas were j arranged for this specific purpose, j Last year, Germany alone sent the j majority of immigrants who entered • the United States. This preponderj ance from Central Europe will j probably continue for many years, i because the quotas from Great Britain and Ireland, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Switzerland, and Scandinavia are far from being filled.