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

its willingness to participate in the Evian Conference. Paraguay possessed an “immense
territory of extraordinary fertility” but was “too thinly populated” and needed the
absorption of “industrious individuals” that could develop and exploit its natural
resources. Nevertheless, the Decree-Law of March 20, 1937, limited admission to
agriculturists and related crafts; a restriction that essentially eliminated from
consideration the bulk of Jewish refugees who were urban based and middle-class. 4
The Irish envoy and Permanent Delegate to the League of Nations, Francis
Thomas Cremins, expressed the gratitude of his Government for being able to officially
offer its heartfelt compassion for the refugees and hoped that significant outcomes would
be achieved. Cremins and the Irish mission had been directed to avoid any financial
obligation without the express approval of the Minister of External Affairs Eamon de
Valera. Consequently, Cremins declared that the Irish were content to have been invited
but were not able to make a bona fide contribution to the problem at hand due to its small
geographic size, a population numbering less than three million and an economy
primarily based on agriculture. Since it was necessary for so many young Irish people to
emigrate each year in search of employment (due to the lack of available land to settle
and the slow expansion of domestic manufacturing) it was not possible to absorb
stateless, unemployed and often destitute refugees. In addition, there was an
overabundance of medical and other professionals which barred entry of aliens with
similar intellectual and professional backgrounds. Cremins also believed that barely a
fraction of the stateless refugees could be assimilated into the more highly industrialized
nations. Thus, he argued, only sparsely settled and underdeveloped territories were
4 “Proceedings,” July 11, 1938, 36.
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