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

distinctly antagonistic and engaged in “stirring up” opposition to the Conference
especially among the Latin American delegations. 17
The British delegation eventually agreed to join their American counterparts in
the establishment of an “informal drafting committee,” excluding the Latin American
nations, to produce a final resolution that would be presented to the heads of the various
delegations. 18 Foreign Office Advisor Roger Makins believed that America, by
necessity, must assume the leadership role in the Conference lest the “meeting…be
chiefly occupied with passing the buck.” French Diplomat Pierre Bressy expressed his
Government’s opposition to locating the planned Intergovernmental Committee for
Political Refugees in Paris maintaining that such a site would “attract undesirable
elements” and risk jeopardizing cordial diplomatic relations with Germany.
Taylor then outlined his conception of the Intergovernmental Committee for
Political Refugees (IGCPR) which “tremendously impressed” Winterton. The American
believed that Sir Neill Malcolm and Judge Michael Hansson of the Nansen Office
possessed too much of a “pushing character” that would be disruptive to the efforts of the
Manchuria and the Italian invasion of Abyssinia and offered only a muted response to the German
annexation of Austria and silence following the Nazi invasion of Poland. During May 1940 Sean Lester,
the Irish Deputy Secretary General, express dismay at the “’dearth of [Avenol’s] leadership and
inspiration…The office seemed without soul…’” available from http://www.historynet.com/josephavenols-betrayal-of-the-league-of-nations.htm;
Internet; accessed August 9, 2010.
17 John Mendelsohn, ed., The Holocaust, vol. 5 (NY: Garland Publishing, 1982), 250-251.
18 Yivo Annual of Jewish Social Science, vol. 15, 1974, 351. U.K delegation included Edward Turnour,
6 th Earl Winterton, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster; Sir Charles Michael Palairet; Sir John
Shuckburgh, Colonial Office Under-Secretary of State; J.G. Hibbert, Director at Colonial Office; E.N.
Cooper, Director at Home office and R.M. Makins. This special group consisted of the 1 st Baron Sherfield
Roger Mellor Makins (Foreign Office Assistant Advisor on League of Nations Questions) for the UK,
Pierre Bressy (Minister Plenipotentiary, Deputy Director of the International Unions at the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs) for France and Robert T. Pell (Division of European Affairs, State Department) for the
U.S.
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