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The Jewish Trail of Tears The Evian Conference of ... - Haruth.com

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Rumania and the Union <strong>of</strong> South Africa sent un<strong>of</strong>ficial observers. <strong>The</strong> United States, the<br />

United Kingdom and France dispatched selected representatives to serve as their<br />

delegations. <strong>The</strong> remaining attendees were drawn from diplomats assigned to the League<br />

<strong>of</strong> Nations in Geneva or in other foreign capitals.<br />

Canada was a reluctant participant. Prime Minister Mackenzie King felt it would<br />

be “unwise” to abstain lest Canada “be classed only with Italy as refusing the invitation.”<br />

Further, such reticence would potentially <strong>of</strong>fend the <strong>Jewish</strong> members <strong>of</strong> his political party<br />

who believed that a Canadian presence was essential even if “we could do nothing later<br />

on.” 145 He regarded the Roosevelt invitation as a “very difficult question” which could<br />

result in the entry <strong>of</strong> refugee Jews. He believed that such admissions would create an<br />

“internal problem” and that Canada could not afford to “play a role <strong>of</strong> the dog in the<br />

manger…with our great open spaces and small population.” Domestic stability was<br />

paramount and the intermingling <strong>of</strong> “foreign strains <strong>of</strong> blood” must be avoided or risk<br />

facing a domestic situation that paralleled the “Oriental problem.” Such refugees, he<br />

feared, would spawn riots and internecine conflict between the Dominion Government<br />

and the Provinces. 146 King had earlier described to an American diplomat his<br />

recollections <strong>of</strong> a meeting with Hitler in Berlin in 1937. <strong>The</strong> Reich Chancellor, he<br />

believed, could eventually be viewed as “one <strong>of</strong> the saviors <strong>of</strong> the world.” Hitler had<br />

145 William Lyon Mackenzie King Diary for 1938, April 25, 1938, 307 available from<br />

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/king/001059-119.02-<br />

e.php?&page_id_nbr=18976&interval=20&&PHPSESSID=8qe57287o5tfs49mreeinfmuh2; Internet;<br />

accessed June 11, 2010.<br />

146 King Diary, March 29, 1938, file 21, 1 available from<br />

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/king/001059-119.02-<br />

e.php?&page_id_nbr=18919&interval=20&&PHPSESSID=d9ot3urcitbgv7jj76a9no8qp5; Internet;<br />

accessed June 11, 2010.<br />

103

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