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

support from private parties and, although he asked for advice from relief organizations
(via the Liaison Committee), he was wont to ignore their recommendations. 38 The
League granted a restricted number of Nansen passports to German refugees, as outlined
in the non-binding Provisional Agreement of 1936 (between the U.K., France, the
Netherlands, Belgium, Norway and Denmark), but the Nansen Office itself would not
cooperate with the Office of the High Commissioner in the handling and processing of
these travel documents. 39
The League ultimately decided to combine the Nansen Office and the High
Commission in 1938. Although the United Kingdom now favored the consolidation of
the two organizations the Home Office was wary of the new entity pursuing an “idealistic
and adventurous policy” that could bring undue pressure upon “countries of temporary
refuge.” 40
The Soviet Union dropped its opposition to the plan provided the organization
would operate on a temporary basis separate from the League bureaucracy and any
reference to Nansen in its title would be avoided. 41 The focus of the newly created High
Commissioner of the League of Nations for Refugees would remain centered upon the
legal and political safeguards offered to the refugees. The facilitation of emigration and
38 Stewart, United States Government Policy, 231-232,
39 John George Stoessinger, The Refugee and the World Community (Minneapolis: University of
Minnesota Press, 1956), 37-38
40 Cooper to Hayter, January 11, 1938, PRO FO 371/22525, W527/104/98 cited in Sherman, Island
Refuge, 81.
41 Orchard, “A Right to Leave,” 194.
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