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

permanent resettlement necessitated some degree of cooperation between governments
and private relief organizations. 42
The retiring Governor of the Indian province of Punjab, Sir Herbert Emerson, was
appointed as the new High Commissioner for Refugees from Germany and, like
McDonald and Malcolm, was limited in his authority and powers. 43
The League refused
to provide any financial or legal support and he was barred from entering into any
agreement regarding refugees while acting as the representative of the League of
Nations. 44 The primary aim of the League was to streamline the emigration process,
improve and simplify cooperation between relief organizations and governments and
encourage resettlement of stateless refugees. Emerson was viewed by the British Foreign
Office as a dedicated bureaucrat who would focus on the machinery of immigration and
not seek to “forge” his own refugee policies. 45
The U.S. State Department agreed to the appointment of Dr. Joseph Chamberlain,
a protégé of McDonald, to be the American representative on the new High Commission
but he would not receive any direct financial support from the Department. 46 However, it
42 Ibid.
43 Emerson became Director of the Intergovernmental Committee upon George Rublee’s resignation in
February 1939 and remained in this position until the Committee’s dissolution on June 30, 1947.
43 Gil Loescher, The UNHCR and World Politics: A Perilous Path (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2001), 32.
45 Marrus, The Unwanted, 166.
46 Stewart, United States Government Policy, 116. Other individuals had been considered for this
position as well, including Admiral Mark Bristol, who had been involved in the issue of the Armenian
Genocide and refugees following the end of the Great War and the occupation of Constantinople. He
declined this appointment as the State Department refused to pay for his traveling expenses. McDonald
advised Cordell Hull on February 6, 1934, NARA 548.D 1/94: “…there is no provision under the laws for
the issuance by the United States authorities of documents of Identity and Travel to aliens.” During the
mid-portion of the 1920’s the State Department declared that “American Consular officers certainly cannot
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