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

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movement <strong>of</strong> “dispersion.” Moreover, land was available to the Greek and Bulgarian<br />

refugees due to the evacuation <strong>of</strong> other peoples and most <strong>of</strong> the migrants were<br />

agricultural rather than urban workers. Outside <strong>of</strong> Zionist circles the concept <strong>of</strong> <strong>Jewish</strong><br />

statehood was not envisaged as a rational solution by this and most other papers, the<br />

general public and governments. 59<br />

During July, in the Portsmouth Evening News, English philosopher Bertrand<br />

Russell called for aid to the displaced Jews. He believed that it was essential to exert<br />

“pressure [upon] our own Government to be hospitable to refugees and not too niggardly<br />

in granting them” entry and the right to re-establish a new life on British shores. This<br />

prompted a response by the paper’s leading <strong>com</strong>mentator, Raymond Burns, who believed<br />

that the refugee issue could only be solved if it was not tainted by “helpless<br />

emotionalism” which had the potential to create a “real anti-Semitic problem” in the<br />

island nation. Britain, like France and the United States, Burns believed, could make the<br />

“greatest contribution” to solving the problem <strong>of</strong> resettlement but all three were nearing<br />

the “saturation point.” Further <strong>Jewish</strong> immigration, he predicted, would generate “latent<br />

hostility to the new<strong>com</strong>ers” and could only result in a “sense <strong>of</strong> grievance” among the<br />

domestically unemployed natives. Significantly, such emotion was shared by the<br />

pr<strong>of</strong>essional classes, including physicians who feared that foreign doctors would engage<br />

in a “cut-price racket.” Burns acknowledged that some form <strong>of</strong> resettlement was<br />

necessary but “for the sake <strong>of</strong> the refugees [Jews] it must not mean Great Britain.”<br />

Consequently, “extensive territory [such as East Africa and excluding Palestine] must be<br />

delineated for mass colonization. <strong>The</strong> Bournemouth Daily Echo asserted that Britons<br />

59 Round Table, September 1938 cited in Katz, “Public Opinion,” 107.<br />

138

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